The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
January 16, 2009

“Free Gaza” Ship Returns to Cyprus After Israeli Threats
--------------------------------------------------------



Meanwhile, a ship trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza has
returned to Cyprus after the Israeli navy threatened to shoot the
civilian passengers on board. The Free Gaza movement boat had left
Cyprus on Wednesday seeking to deliver doctors and medical supplies. It
was the group’s first attempt to reach Gaza since an Israeli navy vessel
deliberately rammed another of its boats last month, almost forcing it
to sink. Huwaida Arraf of the Free Gaza movement described the threats
that forced her boat to return home.

Huwaida Arraf: “In the middle of the night at about 2:30 in the morning,
while we were still well into international waters about a hundred miles
from the coast of Gaza, the Israeli military communicated with us. We
told them exactly who we were and where we were going, and they told us
to turn back. And we told them we were carrying humanitarian aid and it
is incumbent upon them as an occupying force and as a belligerent force
to facilitate the receipt of aid to the people who need it and we intend
to enter Gaza. They surrounded us with four of their warships, flashing
bright lights at us, and they were maneuvering in front of us in a way
that threatened a collision, because our simple boat could not make the
maneuvers they were making. And I told them, I said, ‘the maneuvering of
your warships is threatening the safety of this boat and the lives of
the twenty-one passengers on board. Stay back.’ And then they threatened
that if we did not turn around immediately, they would open fire on us."



.