Turkey is set to send a flotilla to Gaza on Monday, bringing 5,500 tons of aid to “break the siege” on the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported on Sunday.
The flotilla itself is organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), a group of 12 NGOs from countries such as the US, Turkey, and South Africa.
The organization is backed by Fehmi Bulent Yildirim, a Turkish humanitarian activist and president of the Turkish NGO IHH. In a press conference, Yildirim said the flotilla will include ships from Turkey, Lebanon, and Libya and will sail to Rafah after first docking at El-Arish in Egypt, Ynet reported.
According to a Globes report, the flotilla will also include Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, the grandson of former South African president Nelson Mandela, and Aleida Guevara, the daughter of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.
Ynet claimed that Turkish authorities would approve the flotilla, and the country’s intelligence chief was involved in arranging it.
14 years after the Mavi Marmara flotilla
This would be the latest of many aid flotillas launched by Turkish groups to Gaza. The most notable of these in the past was the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010. At the time, Israeli commandos raided the ship and ended up killing several Turkish civilians who were part of the flotilla. The Mavi Marmara incident was a landmark moment in Israeli-Turkish relations, which became severely strained at the time and have yet to fully recover 14 years later.
That flotilla was also organized by IHH, with Yildirim himself having been on board. He was arrested by the IDF and deported.
In the past, IHH has also been accused of aiding or having links to different extremist groups. This includes multiple accusations of links to al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
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