Israel prepares for protest flotilla
By YAAKOV KATZ The Jerusalem Post 20/05/2010 02:30
www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=175925

9 ships plan to break the Gaza Strip blockade next week.

The IDF is gearing up to stop a flotilla of aid ships that is directed at
breaking the blockade on the Gaza Strip next week.

Two ships, one named for international activist Rachel Corrie who was killed
in Gaza in 2003, sailed from Ireland to Cyprus where they will join another
seven boats scheduled to set sail for Gaza next Thursday.

The ships will carry hundreds of international peace activists as well as
some 10,000 tons of construction material, medical equipment and school
supplies. While the Free Gaza movement claims that the flotilla is needed to
provide Palestinians in Gaza with basic supplies, the IDF pointed out on
Tuesday that it had, in the past week, allowed over 14,000 tons of supplies
into the Gaza Strip.

On Monday night, Foreign Ministry officials met with ambassadors from
Turkey, Greece, Ireland and Sweden and informed them that the ships would be
stopped on their way to the Gaza Strip. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has
instructed the Navy to prepare for the operation, which due to the large
number of vessels will require the participation of a large naval force.

The Israeli Navy has in the past stopped international aid ships from
reaching the Gaza Strip. Last June, a ship from Cyprus that included a Nobel
laureate among its passengers, was stopped en route to Gaza and towed to the
Ashdod port.

Meanwhile Wednesday, Hamas sped up work it is doing on the Gaza port to
expand it ahead of the flotilla’s arrival.

The project is funded by a Turkish NGO, and according to a report by the
Quartet, work is carried out daily by 40 workers who put in 18-hour days.
The first phase of the expansion is slated to be completed by the arrival of
the ships and includes increasing the depth of the port basin to 8 meters.

The second phase of the project is expected to be completed in two months
and includes increasing the depth of the entire port. The third phase will
be aimed at turning the Gaza sea port into a tourist attraction for local
residents. According to the Quartet report, most of the raw materials for
the expansion work comes from recycled rubble of buildings destroyed in the
Gaza Strip.