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Gaza – A series of ships sailing Qatar, Israel, Yemen, and Cyprus, and Jordan will challenge the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip over the next two months, said Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Jamal Al-Khudari on Tuesday.
On Friday a ship sailing from Qatar is scheduled to make landfall in Gaza. On Saturday, a ship sailing from Haifa, in northern Israel will reach Gaza carrying five tons of humanitarian aid, including medicine, said Al-Khudari, who is the leader of the Popular Committee Against the Siege of Gaza.
The ships will further test Israel’s willingness to block shipments of vital goods to the coastal territory. After allowing a group of international and Palestinian activists to sail to Gaza three times since August, Israel gunboats forced a Libyan ship carrying 3,000 tons of aid to turn back on Tuesday.
On 18 December the Islamic Parliamentary Union will dispatch a ship from Larnaca, Cyprus. Two days later, Jordanian activists will send a boat from the Red Sea port of Aqaba.
A Yemeni vessel will set sail in January.
Al-Khudari said, in a statement that the Israeli blockade of Gaza has left 70% Gaza residents without electricity.
After nearly a year and a half of closure, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on 4 November, preventing deliveries of aid by land, sea, and air. The territory’s sole power plant has frequently shut down, and the United Nations was forced to suspend a food aid program that feeds 750,000 Palestinians.