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Gaza-bound ship changes course

— Photo: AP

Piling pressure:Demonstrators block the Israeli airline El Al's counters at Athens International airport on Wednesday

JERUSALEM: A ship sent by a Libyan charity to break Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip changed course in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday and instead appeared headed for an Egyptian port, signalling that it would avoid a showdown with the Israeli Navy.

Israel's military said the vessel was now steaming away from Gaza and toward the port city of el-Arish, and Egypt's state news agency MENA reported that Egyptian authorities were “making preparations” to receive the boat there.

The ship, the Moldovan-flagged Almathea, was still crawling in international waters by mid-afternoon Wednesday and could not be contacted for confirmation. An Al-Jazeera reporter on board the aid ship said Israeli vessels were arrayed in a “wall” meant to prevent the ship from continuing toward Gaza.

In recent days, with the vessel's organisers insisting it would go to Hamas-ruled Gaza and Israel saying it would not allow that to happen, the stage appeared set for a showdown on the high seas. Framing the faceoff was Israel's botched attempt to block a similar Gaza-bound aid ship in May, an incident that ended with the death of nine Turkish activists in a violent confrontation on board.

In Gaza, the head of the territory's Hamas government called on the Libyan ship to press ahead to its original destination.

Speaking at a ceremony naming a street after the nine pro-Palestinian activists killed May 31, Ismail Haniyeh called the Libyan ship “our moving hope in the Mediterranean Sea.”

“Beware not to fall into the trap and stop in a port other than Gaza,” he said. — AP

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