TEL AVIV, October 3. /TASS/. Israel will thwart any attempts to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip and infiltrate the enclave by activists and "tourists," adviser in the Israeli prime minister’s office Dmitri Gendelman said.
"The Gaza Strip is a combat operations zone. Any visits there by ‘tourists’ and ‘activists’ without Israel’s permission are illegal and dangerous. And attempts to break it (the blockade - TASS) constitute a violation Israel will thwart each time and till the end," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
"’The flotilla of provokers’ ended up where it should have ended up - not in Gaza, but in Ashdod," he went on. "The Israeli military stopped the vessels. Everyone is safe and sound. Now, instead of songs about ‘free Gaza,’ all of its participants are listening to legal procedures before being expelled."
According to Gendelman, the Global Sumud (meaning "steadfastness" or "steadfast perseverance" in Arabic) Flotilla’s mission was in no way humanitarian. "The action was designed by Hamas and supported by it openly," he pointed out, adding that "documents found in the enclave reveal direct links between the organizers and terrorists."
"The rest is a nice veneer for television," he added.
He recalled that Israel had offered "several legal routes so that food and medicine could reach people, not militants" in the Gaza Strip but the Sumud flotilla activists "rejected them <…> because their objective was not to help but to stage another show on the background of the sea." "And no humanitarian cargoes were found aboard this ‘flotilla,’" he underscored.
According to the Israeli police, 470 Sumud flotilla members were handed over to the Israel Prison Service and migration authorities after being thoroughly checked in Ashdod. They will now be deported from the country. On Thursday, the Israeli foreign ministry said that not a single flotilla boat had managed to make it to the combat operations zone or break the maritime blockade of the enclave. "All of the [flotilla] passengers are safe and sound" and "are being safely transported to Israel, from where they will be deported to Europe," it said, adding that the "Hamas provocation" with the use of the Sumud flotilla was "over."
The Global Sumud Flotilla of more than 40 vessels from different countries sailed off from Tunisia toward Gaza in mid-September. Swedish activist Greta Thurnberg was on board one of these ships. The mission sought to break the siege of the enclave and deliver humanitarian aid there.
The Israeli authorities have repeatedly said that they would not let these ships approach Gaza’s shores, citing a maritime blockade due to ongoing hostilities in the Palestinian enclave. Israel suggested the activists unload humanitarian cargo at Ashkelon, the closest Israeli port to Gaza, or at a port in any other country, from where the aid could be delivered to the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli foreign ministry, the activists rejected these proposals.