In bid to break siege, ship carrying 20 leaves Gaza

By Nour Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - A ship carrying 20 Palestinians set out from the Port of Gaza on Tuesday in hopes of breaking Israel’s decade-long maritime embargo of the Gaza Strip.

Along with activists, passengers included university graduates, medical patients seeking treatment abroad, and Palestinians injured during recent Israeli violence near the security fence separating Gaza from Israel.

The main ship was accompanied by dozens of smaller vessels in a show of defiance against Israel’s crippling siege, which has brought the Gaza Strip to the verge of humanitarian catastrophe.

According to organizers, Tuesday's bid to break the embargo coincides with the eighth anniversary of the infamous Mavi Marmara incident (May 31, 2010), in which 9 Turkish activists were killed by Israeli forces in international waters while attempting to break the siege, and another Turkish activist died nearly four years later, succumbing to injuries sustained during the raid.