Gaza-bound Turkish Aid Ship Arrives in Israel

Jerusalem (PNA/Xinhua) — A Turkish ship with humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip docked on Sunday afternoon in Israel, as part of a deal between Turkey and Israel to normalize ties after years of tensions.

The Lady Leyla docked at the Ashdod Port in southern Israel after embarking on Friday from Turkey’s southern port of Mersin.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said last week that the ship is carrying 10,000 tons of supplies, including medical equipment, food, toys, and other aid.

A spokesperson for Israel’s Coordinator of Government’s Activities in the Territories Office said that 250 trucks would carry the shipment to Gaza in the next two days through Kerem Shalom, a border crossing on the Gaza-Israel-Egypt border.

The cargo will be arriving at the Palestinian enclave just before Tuesday’s Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which celebrates the end of the holy month of the Ramadan.

The shipment is part of a reconciliation deal that Israel and Turkey signed on Tuesday, after six years of a diplomatic crisis between the two former allies over the fatal Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla in 2010.

The family of Oron Shaul, an Israeli soldier whose body is being held by Hamas in Gaza, and dozens of supporters rallied Kerem Shalom on Sunday morning, threatening to block the aid trucks.

Shaul’s family, as well as the families of another missing soldier and two live Israeli civilians who are reportedly being held in Gaza, pressure the government to include the returning of their loved ones in the deal.

Gaza has been under Israeli blockade since 2007, with many types of products not allowed in. (PNA/Xinhua) JMC/EBP