A second boat of pro-Palestinian campaigners which had expected to set sail for Gaza Wednesday was forced to remain in Greece, leaving a lone yacht at sea out of an intended flotilla of 10. The "Juliano", flying a Sierra Leonean flag and hired by Greek, Norwegian and Swedish activists, had expected to try and leave the port of Perama, near Athens, according to passenger and Swedish lawmaker Maria Norden.
However it only managed to sail further south, to the Greek port of Palaia Phokia, with the approval of the port authorities, Dimitris Plionis, one of the group's representatives, told AFP. "The departure cannot take place because the authorities' ban is still in place," he explained. Norden, a Social Democrat MP, said she had decided to return to Sweden to avoid a confrontation with the Greek coast guard. Greek officials turned back the boat on Tuesday afternoon under the terms of a ban imposed on any vessel bound for Gaza. The MV Dignite/Al Karama, a French boat which left Greek waters early on Tuesday, is the only one that managed to set out on its aid mission to Gaza.
The remaining nine ships that had hoped to form an aid flotilla to break the five-year-old blockade imposed by Israel on the tiny Palestinian territory are still stranded in Greece. Officials in Athens say they imposed the ban for the "safety" of the passengers in the wake of last year's bloody showdown, when Israeli commandos raided a six-ship flotilla heading for Gaza, in a confrontation which left nine Turkish activists dead and dozens of people injured.