Amid protests, aid ship from Turkey to Gaza docks in Israel

10,000 tons of goods, including food and medicine, to be trucked to Hamas-run enclave over the next 2 days

The Lady Leyla ship, having left Turkey with supplies for the Gaza Strip, docked Sunday in the Israeli port city of Ashdod, where its thousands of tons of humanitarian aid were to be unloaded and transported overland to the Palestinian enclave.

The ship’s 11,000 tons of goods, including 2,000 tons of rice as well as medicine and toys for children, are to be carried to Gaza by 250 trucks over the next two days and will enter the Strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

Earlier in the day, the families of three Israelis held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip staged a protest at the crossing, which is the main commercial entry point into Gaza.

The families of Oron Shaul, Hadar Goldin and Avraham Mengistu have rallied against a detente deal between Israel and Turkey inked last week, which allowed for the transfer of aid to Gaza via the port of Ashdod but did not stipulate the return of their sons.

Goldin and Shaul were declared killed during the 2014 war with Hamas-led fighters in Gaza and their bodies held by the terror group. Mengistu sneaked into the Strip in 2014 and has been held by the group since, along with another Israeli man, Hisham al-Sayed, who entered Gaza in 2015, according to Israeli officials.

The families voiced outrage that their sons remain in Gaza while Israel provides 1,000 trucks of humanitarian aid daily to the beleaguered Palestinian territory, including the Turkish shipment.

The parents of late Israeli soldier Oron Shaul block trucks heading to the Gaza Strip at the Erez Crossing, July 3, 2016. (Flash90)

The aid shipment was sent by Turkey after the signing of the deal last week and is scheduled to arrive at the border crossing on Monday, ahead of Tuesday’s Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the month of Ramadan.

The Lady Leyla, a Panama-flagged ship, set off from the southern port of Mersin, television images showed.

The families of Shaul, Goldin and Mengistu say that the transfer of aid enabled by the deal is an abandonment of the soldiers and civilians.

Mother of late Israeli soldier Oron Shaul seen at the protest tent outside the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem on June 30, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) — Mother of late Israeli soldier Oron Shaul seen at the protest tent outside the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on June 30, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“There’s nothing more humanitarian than releasing the captive sons, and in exchange bestowing benefits to Gaza,” Oron Shaul’s mother, Zahava Shaul, said Sunday, according to the Israeli news site Ynet. “It’s unacceptable to act unilaterally and it’s unacceptable that they continue to neglect the IDF soldiers held in Gaza for two years, since Operation Protective Edge. We’re not against the deal or aid to Gaza in general, but we believe that the deal is an opportunity to free our sons. In order for that to happen the government and its prime minister must ensure that this condition will be a central part of the deal.”

A Defense Ministry employee discovers bulletproof plating in a shipment of car parts on its way to the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing on December 29, 2015. (Defense Ministry)

Last week the high-level security cabinet approved Israel’s newly inked reconciliation deal with Turkey, with seven out of its 10 members voting in favor of the agreement that officially ended years of animosity between the two countries, despite vociferous protests by the families, who have attempted to rally public opinion around their cause.

Critics have faulted the accord as a capitulation to Hamas in that it does not provide for the return to Israel of the Israelis. Some also chafed at Israel’s agreement to apologize and pay $20 million compensation over a May 2010 IDF raid on the Gaza-bound Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which resulted in the deaths of 10 Turkish citizens after the activists on board attacked the soldiers.

Parents of late Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin at a protest tent outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem, June 27, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90) — Parents of late Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin at a protest tent outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, June 27, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

“This is an agreement that the prime minister led, in an undemocratic step, which goes against the basic values of the IDF and the State of Israel since its founding,” the Goldin family said in a statement released after Wednesday’s cabinet vote. “The prime minister has made Hamas a party in the agreement by way of Turkey, which sponsors the organization. Therefore, the prime minister is encouraging terrorism and giving Hamas a prize.”

IDF soldiers Oron Shaul (left) and Hadar Goldin (right) (Flash90)

On Tuesday, the families met with Netanyahu and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the issue. Netanyahu promised repeatedly to do everything possible for the Israelis in Gaza and appealed to Ban to intervene.

But the prime minister has also stressed that Turkey had agreed to try to assist in this matter, and that the agreement ends years of Israeli-Turkish enmity, protects Israeli soldiers from legal action over the Mavi Marmara affair, leaves the security blockade of Gaza in place, and opens the possibility of major bilateral economic cooperation.