RAMALLAH, July 10 (JMCC) - A Canadian flagged ship, the Tahrir, decided Saturday night to pull out of the flotilla bound for Gaza.
Greek officials had imposed yet another bureaucratic hurdle before the vessel would be allowed to set sail,
reports Haaretz.
There are now just two ships from the original flotilla still planning to reach Gaza. One is Dignity El Karameh, with a French delegation of activists; it has been at sea for two weeks, waiting for the other vessels to join it. A few days ago, the vessel anchored in Crete in order to refuel. The other ship is the Greek-Swedish-Norwegian Giuliano, which left Athens last Wednesday.
During the past three weeks, the Greek authorities have imposed many bureaucratic obstacles which had not been applied before, aimed at the eight (of the 10 vessels in the Gaza-bound flotilla) ships which were in their territorial waters.
Activists were sailing to Gaza to protest Israel's sea blockade there one year after a similar flotilla was boarded by Israeli commandos and nine activists killed.