100 Palestinian boats to greet Freedom Flotilla

Gaza – Ma'an – One hundred boats will set sail from Gaza's Fisherman Port on Sunday to greet the Freedom Flotilla before it ways anchor in Gaza City's port on Sunday, Committee Against the Siege and PLC member Jamal Al-Khudary said. 

The welcoming convoy will include committee members, organizers, officials and the families of prisoners in Israeli jails, a statement issued by Al-Khudary read. 

The boats, he said, carry a message of support for members of the Freedom Flotilla and will wave Palestinian flags as well as flags of activists' native countries.

Balloons with the names of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces will be released, he added. 

The fleet 

Israeli warships are set to intercept the aid fleet, some nine ships loaded with 600 solidarity activists, "with force if necessary," as the activist group insists on proceeding to the Gaza port.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that the number of boats has dwindled from eight to five, while the fleet was being held up near Cyprus as organizers try to get more than two dozen high-profile activists on board.

The would-be passengers, including 17 European legislators and a Holocaust survivor, were expected to join the ships from Cyprus, the AP reported. Organizer Greta Berlin said Saturday the Cypriot government is not allowing smaller boats to carry the group to the flotilla waiting in international waters.

Israeli anti-flotilla activists set sail to intercept boats 

The Israeli activist group StandWithUs continued its campaign against what it calls the "anti-Israel" boats which the group says support the Hamas government in Gaza, and announced the launch of six boats from the Israeli port of Ashdod on Friday afternoon. 

Organizers said journalists were aboard each of the vessels, along with large banners reading "Free Gaza From Hamas," the slogan adopted by the group in an effort to persuade the Freedom Flotilla from continuing on to the Gaza Port. 

"Those on board were wearing blood-stained t-shirts" with the slogan, organizers said in a statement, and supporters handed out " copies of it's Hamas charter booklet, among other literature" to onlookers. 

"It is so clearly evident that the world needs to see what the true situation is," one StandWithUs official said.

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