June 2, 2010

In the early hours of May 31, a Turkish so-called humanitarian aid organization, IHH, which financially and morally supports terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, organized a flotilla of six ships to Gaza. This supposed “aid” flotilla was actually a “hate” flotilla. Due to the fact that Hamas controls Gaza, smuggles weapons and ammunition aimed against Israeli civilians, and because there is NO lack of humanitarian aid coming into Gaza (Israel provides ample electricity, food, medical supply, water), we didn’t know the nature of what the flotillas carried; therefore, Israel advised the organizers to show us the humanitarian aid for inspection. We offered to have the flotilla dock in the port of Ashdod so the supplies could be properly checked for dangerous materials. After the verification we would have been happy to deliver the supplies to Gaza via land, through existing crossings, on behalf of the flotilla’s organizers. We emphasized that we would not let the flotilla enter Gaza because of the risks mentioned above.