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Iran To Provoke Israel and Desires For Israel To Kick Their Ass
Iran’s Red Crescent Society is preparing to send two aid boats to Gaza this week to challenge the Israeli embargo. The announcement came a day after a senior Iranian official offered Revolutionary Guardsas escorts for vessels challenging the blockade — a move that would be seen in Israel as a provocation. Nine people were killed in an Israeli commando raid on a Turkish aid flotilla last week.
“One ship will carry donations made by the people and the other will carry relief workers. The ships will be sent to Gaza by end of this week,” said Abdolrauf Adibzadeh, the head of the Red Crescent in Iran, adding that a third boat could follow at a later date.
The first two vessels will head to Gaza in co-ordination with the Turkish Government, one of them carrying “70 aid workers such as nurses and medics and the other will have foodstuffs and medicines”, Mr Adibzadeh said. He called for volunteers to join the convoy. The third boat would have an operating theatre on board.
Israel, which has kept a tight control on any goods or people entering Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement took power in 2007, has vowed not to allow aid boats through. Its interception of the six-vessel flotilla last week ended in a bloodbath, international condemnation and calls for an independent inquiry.
In response to a no-confidence motion tabled by opposition parties the Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, said that his Government would investigate the incident and consider alternative ways to enforce the blockade.
The raid has ruptured Israel’s strategic alliance with Turkey, its sole friend in the Muslim world. Turkey has said that ties will not return to normal until an international inquiry is held, a move that Israel is resisting.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, yesterday described the raid as a violation of international law. “If there is hatred, it is Israel’s hatred. If there is terror, it is Israel’s state terrorism,” he said after meeting President al-Assad of Syria.
Israel is worried that Turkey, with whom it has enjoyed close military ties in the past, is moving away from the West and closer to the Muslim world. A joint Turkish-Iranian attempt to break the blockade would add to such fears.
The last time that the Iranian Red Crescent sent an aid boat with food and medicine to Gaza it was intercepted by the Israeli navy without casualties in December 2008. Tensions have soared since the killings on the Mavi Marmara ferry last Monday and Israel has accused an Islamic Turkish charity of sneaking mercenaries on to the vessel.
Israeli forces killed four more people off the coast of Gaza yesterday, accusing them of being Palestinian frogmen trying to break out of the heavily guarded coastal enclave to attack Israel.
Abu al-Walid, a survivor of the attack, said that seven unarmed members of al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a militant offshoot of Fatah, had been doing “swimming training”. when Israeli helicopters and naval forces opened fire.Israel’s military said that it had attacked “a squad of terrorists wearing diving suits on their way to execute a terror attack”.
“One ship will carry donations made by the people and the other will carry relief workers. The ships will be sent to Gaza by end of this week,” said Abdolrauf Adibzadeh, the head of the Red Crescent in Iran, adding that a third boat could follow at a later date.
The first two vessels will head to Gaza in co-ordination with the Turkish Government, one of them carrying “70 aid workers such as nurses and medics and the other will have foodstuffs and medicines”, Mr Adibzadeh said. He called for volunteers to join the convoy. The third boat would have an operating theatre on board.
Israel, which has kept a tight control on any goods or people entering Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement took power in 2007, has vowed not to allow aid boats through. Its interception of the six-vessel flotilla last week ended in a bloodbath, international condemnation and calls for an independent inquiry.
In response to a no-confidence motion tabled by opposition parties the Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, said that his Government would investigate the incident and consider alternative ways to enforce the blockade.
The raid has ruptured Israel’s strategic alliance with Turkey, its sole friend in the Muslim world. Turkey has said that ties will not return to normal until an international inquiry is held, a move that Israel is resisting.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, yesterday described the raid as a violation of international law. “If there is hatred, it is Israel’s hatred. If there is terror, it is Israel’s state terrorism,” he said after meeting President al-Assad of Syria.
Israel is worried that Turkey, with whom it has enjoyed close military ties in the past, is moving away from the West and closer to the Muslim world. A joint Turkish-Iranian attempt to break the blockade would add to such fears.
The last time that the Iranian Red Crescent sent an aid boat with food and medicine to Gaza it was intercepted by the Israeli navy without casualties in December 2008. Tensions have soared since the killings on the Mavi Marmara ferry last Monday and Israel has accused an Islamic Turkish charity of sneaking mercenaries on to the vessel.
Israeli forces killed four more people off the coast of Gaza yesterday, accusing them of being Palestinian frogmen trying to break out of the heavily guarded coastal enclave to attack Israel.
Abu al-Walid, a survivor of the attack, said that seven unarmed members of al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a militant offshoot of Fatah, had been doing “swimming training”. when Israeli helicopters and naval forces opened fire.Israel’s military said that it had attacked “a squad of terrorists wearing diving suits on their way to execute a terror attack”.
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