Qatari charity seeks to defy Gaza blockade
Agence France-Presse - 02 December, 2008 www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=445381&news_type=Top〈=enA Qatari charity said on Monday it plans to ship one tonne of medical aid to
the Gaza Strip this week in a bid to defy an Israeli blockade on the tiny
Palestinian territory."We intend to send a boat in a symbolic gesture, carrying a tonne of medcine
to our brothers in Gaza," said Abdallah al-Nimaa, vice president of the
pro-Islamist Qatar Charity Organisation.Nimaa told AFP the ship is to sail from Doha on Friday although he expects
the Israeli authorities to stop the vessel from reaching Gaza, where most of
its 1.5 million people depend on foreign aid."We expect Israeli warships to bar the Qatari aid ship, however we are
determined," he said, adding that the organisation did not request an
Israeli permit.The announcement came as Israeli warships barred a Libyan ship carrying
3,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza, forcing it to divert
towards Egypt.Israel sealed off its crossings with Gaza -- the impoverished territory's
main gateway for food and humanitarian aid -- as well as its maritime
borders after the Islamist movement Hamas violently seized power there in
June 2007.
If Israel had only taken care of business last summer when the first two yachts full of friends of terrorist were dealt with in a forceful way none of this never would be happening.
