- Title: CYPRUS: Peace activists return to Cyprus from Gaza with Palestinians
- Date: 30th August 2008
- Summary: PALESTINIAN SA'AD MESLEH MAKING THE VICTORY SIGN AS THE BOAT DOCKS FAMILY OF MAHA DARWISH ON BOAT
- Embargoed: 14th September 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Cyprus
- Country: Cyprus
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVAC4PQHZHOTL96NNNRF11ORRARO
- Story Text: Human rights activists return to Cyprus with Palestinians from Gaza after breaching Israeli blockade by boat, saying they will repeat the action.
Foreign activists from a movement called "Free Gaza", who sailed to Gaza last week to protest against an Israeli blockade of the enclave, said on Friday (August 29) they planned to do it again within a month.
Most of the activists returned to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus late on Friday, a week after they set sail, bringing Palestinian citizens back with them. They were the first foreigners to go to Gaza by sea since Israel tightened travel restrictions after the militant Hamas movement took control more than a year ago.
Israel allowed the 44 activists to reach Gaza by boat on Aug 23, saying it wanted to avoid a public confrontation. The group took in a small quantity of hearing aids for children.
Seven Palestinians sailed back to Cyprus with the activists, including 16 year old Sa'ad Mesleh, who lost a leg in an Israeli army attack on militants three years ago.
"Gaza is full of injured people needing desperate help, and I hope the international community will take a stand and take more steps like this and bring more injured people out of the Gaza strip because there is no treatment in the Gaza strip," said Mesleh, who said he was overjoyed to be in Cyprus and is hoping to get an artificial leg.
He said he was hit by Israeli tank fire as he was in a family orchard watering orange trees.
He described his life in Gaza as being full of "death and chaos."
Looking considerably younger than his 16 years, the wheelchair-bound Mesleh was put in an ambulance and taken to a local government hospital.
Palestinian mother Maha Darwish was also on board with her four children between the ages of four and eighteen. She has relatives in Cyprus including her brother who came to the port to meet her, and the family had a tearful reunion. Darwish said she had been trying for years to leave Gaza and had made efforts in the last few months to get to Cyprus but without success.
"I tried for three months ago to come out, I can't," she said, "For five years I can't get outside."
Cyprus, which lies some 240 nautical miles west of Gaza, is generally viewed as very sympathetic towards Palestinians.
Members of a Cypriot peace group, with close ties to the present communist administration, met activists who arrived in the port of Larnaca on Friday.
Paul Larudee, a member of the U.S.-based group and organizer of the trip, which included members from 17 countries, said some 10 activists stayed behind and they will go back to retrieve them.
Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of Tony Blair, former British prime minister and present U.N. envoy for the Middle East, was one of the activists who remained in Gaza.
Larudee said the trip could be a model for future trips.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt in June. As part of that deal Israel has eased its blockade of the territory, allowing in more humanitarian goods and medical equipment. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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