Fleet fact facing serious delays, could navigate only next week - Jerusalem Post

Removed acts of insurance, alleged sabotage, and Greek bureaucracy focused on a setback to the organizers of freedom flotilla 2, who said on Tuesday that the departure of the Gaza Strip could be postponed until next week.

In addition, a mere 350 people should participate in the fleet, as opposed to the 1 500 initially planned by the organizers.

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"There have been many obstacles and complaints." "Some boats is not ready and is not not when us leave, although we hope that this will be in the coming week", Ewa Jasiewicz, a leader of the Free Gaza of the Poland movement, told the Jerusalem Post, of the Greece. "We cannot rule out the possibility that it will be pushed off the coast until early next week."

In any event, the Israel Navy continues its preparations to stop the planned fleet of 10 ships.

Tuesday, officers of the Navy and aviation has organized a series of meetings to discuss operational plans and senior IDF officials have in recent days, talked with foreign military attachés based in Israel as well as with their counterparts from countries whose citizens participate fleet.

"We want to ensure that everyone is aware of what we do and why," explained a senior officer.

10 Vessels should participate in the fleet include the freedom of the Ireland, the audacity of hope in the United States, the Canada Tahrir, Swedish and Greek Juliano, two Swedish-Greek cargo vessels carrying 3,000 tons of supplies, the Italian ship Stefano Chiarini and French ships Julien Rivoire and dignity.

The two French ships left Corsica over the weekend and are en route to the rendezvous point in the Mediterranean, Jasiewicz said, while other boats is moored in Greece awaiting approval to depart from the band of Gaza.

On Tuesday, the Juliano propeller shaft was found cut, leading organizers to accuse Israel of sabotaging the ship, which will take several days to correct.

"Insurance has been withdrawn, one of the ships has been sabotaged and Greek authorities have not given all the permits," Jasiewicz said about delays.

Jasiewicz rejected the assertions of IDF declared in the Post Tuesday that information obtained by Israel shows that some of the passengers plan to attack soldiers and bring bags of sulphur on board to pay the soldiers and then set on fire.

"We have no record of that." "It is a false claim," she said.

"All passengers have been trained in non-violence and non-compliance tactics." The idea is not step of having contacts with the Israeli army. We are not any violent confrontation... "Violence only that we have heard is from the Israeli army".

Chief of general staff lieutenant - general Benny Gantz said on Tuesday that the fleet is not intended to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans, but rather to delegitimize Israel internationally.

Gantz, speaking at a ceremony for IDF honor reservists, said there was no lack of basic supplies in the Gaza Strip, and that they "import televisions and plasma screens and the export of agricultural products in all the Arab world."

The Israeli army was well equipped and ready to deal with any threat posed by militants of the fleet, he said.

Speaking at the same ceremony, Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the flotilla a "provocation", adding that "there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza." If [activists] are sensitive to human suffering, then they need transform their efforts for releasing [kidnapped soldier] Gilad Schalit or at least allowing the visitors. »

The Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.