ISRAEL will allow a group of Palestinian students to sail from Gaza to Cyprus on Wednesday aboard two boats which managed to dock in the tiny Palestinian territory over the weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The two boats carried a contingent of 44 international protesters, including prominent Israeli anthropology professor Jeff Halper and British journalist Lauren Booth - the sister-in-law of former British prime minister Tony Blair - who were attempting to draw world attention to living conditions in Gaza.
"I hope the decision to allow these students to travel to Cyprus will help to legitimise this passage between Gaza and Cyprus, to actually open a route that would allow people here freedom of movement," Booth told the Herald . "It's also very significant that this Free Gaza protest that succeeded in getting here not just be forgotten but rather be the first in a series of steps to break the siege."
Gaza has been in a state of almost permanent lock-down since the radical Islamic movement Hamas took control of Gaza last year.
During that time the Gazan economy has collapsed, pushing unemployment as high 70 per cent, while importation of basic goods and services is severely restricted.
Israel says it has been forced to impose a virtual siege on Gaza in response to the daily rocket attacks on Israeli communities near Gaza from Palestinian militants backed by Hamas. Yet after two months of official truce between Hamas and Israel, during which the daily rocket attacks have fallen to almost zero, many Gazans say little has changed.
Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, said day-to-day life for most people was the same.
"There has been no killings and injuries from military violence, no incursions from the Israeli army, but people here are denied the basic human right of freedom of movement, and this must end," Mr Sourani said.
"What is the precedent for this in history? That so many people can be denied the right to travel - people who want access to proper health care, to travel for education, to travel for business. This is a siege which is destroying lives."
■ Israel freed 198 Palestinian prisoners yesterday in a gesture to President Mahmoud Abbas as the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, was due in the region to spur US-backed peace talks. Many of the detainees fell to their knees and kissed the soil as they were released outside the Israeli military detention centre at Ofer in the occupied West Bank.
