Around 1,000 boats were due to gather in the Turkish port of Bodrum on Wednesday to sail to Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade and disrupt commercial maritime operations to Israeli ports amid a war with Hamas, Cypriot Sigma Live newspaper reported as quoted by Rador. Radio Romania.

In an interview with the Turkish news site Haber7, Volkan Okcu, one of the organizers of the protest, said that the boats would transport 4,500 people from 40 countries, “including anti-Zionist Jews.”

According to him, among the 1,000 ships there will be 313 ships with Russian supplies and 104 with Spanish ones. Only 12 Turkish ships will join the convoy, he told Haber7. But Okcu said in a tweet later that he expected the number of Turkish ships to be much higher, at least 1,000, and insisted that the initiative was not linked to the Turkish government.

Stop in Cyprus

The activist told Haber7 that the fleet is due to leave the coast of Turkey on Thursday. The naval convoy will make its first stop in Cyprus (the map shows the convoy passing the Cypriot city of Paphos, but it is not clear whether the boats will also call at any port in the Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus) before continuing. the road to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

It seems that some of the convoy members will also take their wives and children on board.

Okchu said the main objective of the operation would be to disrupt commercial maritime operations in international waters off Israel’s coast towards the port of Ashdod to stop the supply of goods to Israel for a week or even 10 days. .

This whole protest action is reminiscent of the so-called “Gaza Freedom Fleet” in May 2010, led by the ship Mavi Marmara, which tried to break the naval blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, but was intercepted by the Israeli navy.

After the Mavi Marmara incident, many other attempts were made to send convoys to Gaza, but they mostly failed because of Israel’s military and diplomatic activities.

“The Zionist regime does not seem to have the ability to repeat the Mavi Marmara incident,” said a Turkish activist. “Ships sail under the flags of the USA, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Russia, Germany, Spain, Poland and many other countries.”

The activist also noted that elite boats will also join this convoy, and participants from Europe and the US will spend an average of $14,000 to join.

“We will respect international norms”

Okchu promised that the participants would “strictly adhere to international norms” and not carry weapons, “not even a pocket knife”, so as not to give Israel an “excuse” to intervene.

“The moment we enter the territorial waters of the Gaza Strip, [forțele israeliene] they can simply search us,” said the activist, “or tow us to their ports and impose fines,” but they will not be allowed under international law to attack a convoy in international waters, as they did to the Mavi Marmara in 2010. [Israelul] will pay a heavy price for attempting any foolish action against such a large international peacekeeping fleet.”

The symbolism of the Mavi Marmara incident

The 2010 Mavi Marmara incident has particular significance for the Hamas regime in Gaza as a symbol of international support for an end to the blockade. A monument erected at the Gaza port to commemorate the incident was demolished by the IDF on Thursday.