Another aid-bounded ship from Freedom Flotilla heads for the Hamas-run Gaza Strip a month after the Israeli deadly attack on the humanitarian convoy, Al Jazeera said on Saturday.
The 92-metre Moldova-flagged cargo ship called Al-Amal ("Hope" in Arabic) left the Greek port of Lavrio to sail for Gaza despite the Israeli warnings not to approach the Palestinian territory.
The aid ship was sponsored by the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF), headed by the son of the Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. The vessel carries about 2,000 tons of aid and the activists willing to help the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The GICDF director, Yousseuf Sawani told Al Jazeera that "we are doing what we can, this is our responsibility. If everyone just hangs back and says the Israelis will not allow this nothing will happen and the people of Gaza will continue under starvation".
A volunteer on the humanitarian aid ship said their mission was peaceful since the ship was loaded with rice, oil, tomatoes and flour.
"We don't have weapons, we don't have guns. We don't even have small knives or nothing because we come for peace to help," Al Jazeera quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Shahar Arieli told Al Jazeera that nobody could guarantee the ship was free from weapons.
"If there is humanitarian aid, this can be sent through Israeli border crossings to Gaza," Arieli told Al Jazeera.
On May 31, the Israeli military stormed the Freedom Flotilla carrying some 10,000 tons of aid to Gaza Strip and up to 700 human rights activists in neutral waters in the Mediterranean Sea.
The operation claimed the lives of at least 9 activists of the Turkish Mavi Marmara. Arab media reports put the death toll at close to 20.
MOSCOW, July 10 (RIA Novosti)
