JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel claimed on Wednesday that a flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists seeking to bust the Gaza blockade is a provocation and that the aid it is carrying is “unnecessary.”

“I don't see the need for any ship with these materials. We allow these materials into Gaza,” Colonel Moshe Levy told reporters at the Kerem Shalom crossing in reference to the 10,000 tons of building materials and other supplies the activists say are aboard a flotilla headed towards Gaza.
“The sail is a provocative act that is unnecessary in light of the figures, which indicate that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is good and stable,” said Levy, who heads the Gaza coordination and liaison office.
Humanitarian agencies say the embargo, imposed in Gaza since 2007, amounts to collective punishment of the 1.5 million residents of the overcrowded sliver of land that still bears the scars of a devastating Israeli offensive in January 2009.
Israel has said it will prevent the ships from reaching the Gaza Strip, and authorities have prepared facilities to detain the hundreds of activists aboard the vessels, according to media.
Huwaida Arraf of Free Gaza, one of the groups taking part in the flotilla, said “we will non-violently resist Israeli attempts to seize our boats. Thousands of people have contributed to making this flotilla a reality, and the people of Gaza are expecting us.”
Greta Berlin, another of the organizers, said the boats would seek to evade capture. “We intend to stay at sea and have supplies on board for two months.”
Asked if she feared Israel might arrest all the participants, she said: “you might want to ask the Israelis what they intend to do with 750 civilians.”
Three cargo vessels left from Ireland, Greece and Turkey in recent days and plan to rendezvous with six smaller passenger boats off the coast of Cyprus before steaming on to Gaza where organizers hope to arrive by Saturday.
Last June the Israeli navy intercepted a ship carrying journalists and activists, including Irish Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, from Cyprus to Gaza and towed it into the southern Israeli port of Ashdod.
The crew and passengers were returned home after being questioned by police.