STOCKHOLM

A Sweden-based nongovernmental organization has announced it has bought a third ship which it plans to sail to the Gaza Strip during the coming summer in an effort to break the ongoing Israeli blockade of the region.

Ship to Gaza Foundation President Jeannette Escanilla told Anadolu Agency they plan to sail under the banner Armada for Gaza this summer to break the Israeli blockade.

Escanilla said most of the preparations were complete.

“With a lot of people, we are looking forward to sating off one more time to break Israel’s illegal embargo,” she said.

She added that the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was also supporting their initiative.

“We will set off from Goteborg, Malmo and Uppsala cities in Sweden with two sailboats and one ship,” she said.

Boats belonging to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla will move through southern Europe while big ships will move to Gaza from the ocean, she added.

Last year, the group bought a nine-meter sailboat and named it Mairead after the peace activist and Nobel Peace laureate, Mairead Maguire.

In December, the group had bought a 20-meter ship from Britain.

Due to the Israeli blockade, the Gaza Strip’s roughly two million inhabitants have come to rely on a sophisticated network of cross-border tunnels to import basic commodities, including food, fuel, and medicine.

In May 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 Turkish activists on the Mavi Marmara ship convoy, which was headed for Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, leading to a years-long diplomatic rift between Israel and Turkey.

Reporting by Atila Altuntas; Writing by Handan Kazanci