WUNRN
LEBANON-GAZA: LEBANESE
WOMEN ORGANIZE AID SHIP TO GAZA
June 15,
2009
Beirut, Lebanon (AFP) – An aid ship transporting medical supplies to Gaza is to leave Lebanon in the coming days with dozens of women activists on board, one of the organisers told AFP on Tuesday.
"We are all independent women who believe in breaking the (Israeli) siege on Gaza," said Samar Hajj, who is coordinating the trip.
But Israel warned that it will not allow the boat to pass or for Lebanon's Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah to use it to transport arms to the Gaza Strip.
"We will not let Iran or an organisation like Hezbollah bring weapons and rockets into Gaza which could kill Israelis," a senior Israeli government source told AFP, insisting the boat would not be allowed to reach Gaza.
And a senior defence official, quoted by Israel's army radio, said Israel would hold the Lebanese government accountable if Hezbollah was involved in the aid shipment.
Hajj, meanwhile, stressed that the women were not affiliated with Hezbollah or any other political organisation.
"This has nothing to do with Hezbollah even though it is an honour for us to be supporters of the resistance," said Hajj, whose husband Ali Hajj was one of four generals detained for nearly four years in connection with the 2005 car bombing that killed former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri and 22 others.
Ali Hajj, who was domestic security chief, was released from prison in April 2009 after a UN-backed tribunal said there was insufficient evidence against the generals.
Hajj's wife said so far 50 women -- Muslim, Christian and secular -- had signed up for the trip on board the cargo ship "Mariam." Among them were 30 Lebanese and 20 foreigners, including several European nationals.
She said all the logistics for the trip had been handled by the Free Palestine Movement, a non-governmental organisation.
"We are going there because it is our duty," she said.
"The ship will be leaving very soon," she added, without giving an exact date.
Preparations are also underway by other pro-Palestinian activists to send an aid ship carrying educational supplies and journalists from Lebanon to Gaza.
The planned trips come following Israel's raid on May 31 on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead and sparked international outrage.
Last year, a Lebanese freighter which tried to deliver aid to Gaza in defiance of the blockade was intercepted at sea by the Israeli navy.
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