A flotilla of around 1,000 vessels will gather in the Turkish port of Bodrum on Wednesday before sailing to Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade and disrupt sea routes to Israel, raising concerns of a new ‘Blue Marmara’ in the midst of the bloody war with Hamas.

In an interview with the Turkish news website Haber7, Volkan Oksu, one of the organizers of the move, said the boats would carry 4,500 people from 40 countries, “including anti-Zionist Jews.” “Our goal is to disable the sea supply line to Israel for a week and 10 days,” the Turkish activist said.

Among the 1,000 ships will be 313 Russian vessels, and 104 Spanish vessels, he explained. Twelve Turkish vessels will join the flotilla, he clarified, adding that he hopes that number will increase. The activist also told Haber7 that the flotilla is scheduled to leave Turkish shores on Thursday. The sea convoy, as noted, is going to make a first stop in Cyprus (the map shows it passing through Paphos, but it is not clear if they will dock), as sigmalive.com reports, before continuing to the Israeli port of Ashdod. Some participants in the flotilla will reportedly also have their wives and children on board.

The route they will follow

Oksu said the main objective of the operation is to cause disruption off the Israeli coast to sea trade bound for the port of Ashdod, in order to disrupt the supply of goods to Israel for a week or even up to 10 days.

The whole operation is reminiscent of the attempt by the so-called “Gaza Freedom Fleet” with the ship Mavi Marmara in May 2010, when they tried to breach the maritime blockade in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, but were intercepted by the Israeli Navy. After the Mavi Marmara incident, other attempts were made but were largely thwarted by Israeli military and diplomatic moves.

“The Zionist regime seems to have no chance of repeating the Mavi Marmara incident,” the Turkish activist argued. “The ships fly the flags of the US, the UK, Luxembourg, Russia, Germany, Spain, Poland and many other countries.” The activist noted that luxury yachts will also join the venture and participants from Europe and the US will spend an average of $14,000 to participate.

“We will follow international rules”

Oksu pledged that those taking part would “strictly follow international rules” and not carry any weapons, “not even pocket knives”, so as not to give Israel any “pretext” to intervene.

“The moment we enter the territorial waters of Gaza, the Israeli forces can only search us,” the activist argued, “or tow us to their ports and impose fines,” but he emphasized that “they will not be allowed by the international law to raid the convoy in international waters, the way they attacked the Mavi Marmara in 2010. Israel would pay a heavy price for attempting any action against such a large international peacekeeping fleet.”

The bloody incident of Mavi Marmaras

On May 31, 2010, Israeli forces attacked, after warnings, a convoy of the international Free Gaza movement. The purpose of the convoy, as claimed by the ship’s commanders, was to break the naval blockade by carrying humanitarian aid to the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip.

The convoy refused the Israeli government’s offer to sail to the port of Ashdod. Under the proposal, the Israeli government would initially control the humanitarian aid and some items and then allow the aid to be distributed to Gaza.

The ensuing skirmish on a ship killed nine activists, according to the Israelis, and wounded 60, as well as six Israeli soldiers.

The reaction of the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The press representative of the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Theodoros Gotsis, speaking to sigmalive, said that any actions taken are monitored by the services.

The Israelis bombed the Turkish monument to the Blue Marmara

The Turkish memorial to the dead of Mavi Marmara, located in Gaza, was bombed and destroyed last Thursday by the Israeli army. After this episode, Israel-Turkey diplomatic relations were “frozen”.

Turkish television network TGRT commented that the bombing of the monument came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a speech to his party’s Parliamentary Group in which he declared that “Israel is a terrorist state.”