Turkey ship Lady Leyla, with 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid for residents of the Gaza Strip on board, including food, toys, and drugs, reached Ashdod Port today. The ship was awaited by a tow tug at the entrance to the port at the instructions by the political echelon to expedite handling of the ship in the queue and quickly unload the equipment it was carrying.
Port management was already making preparations for the ship in the early hours of the morning, and treated the event as a sensitive mission, given the difficult political and policy circumstances, even though the ship was fairly small and unloading it will take only a short time. Ashdod Port acting CEO Isaac Blumenthal and representatives of the Ministry of Transport and the Prime Minister's Office National Security Council kept a close watch over the event.
The Lady Leyla left on its way to Israel following the reconciliation agreement signed by Israel and Turkey last week, six years after the diplomatic and political crisis that erupted following the takeover of the Mavi Marmara ship by Israeli naval personnel when the ship attempted to run the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. During the operation, Israeli personnel were attacked by a raging mob, and nine members of the ship's crew were killed. As part of the reconciliation agreement, Israel apologized for the incident, and will pay Turkey $20 million in compensation.
Security forces scanned the Lady Leyla and its cargo upon entry into Ashdod Port; the cargo will later undergo a security check. When these procedures are completed, the cargo will be loaded on trucks and taken to the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, to the dismay of bereaved parents, including the father of IDF soldier Oren Shaul, whose body, together with that Hadar Goldin, both of whom were killed two years ago in Operation Protective Edge, is held by Hamas. The bereaved parents announced they would prevent the passage of the trucks carrying the cargoes sent from Turkey to the Gaza Strip through Kerem Shalom. They expressed their dissatisfaction that the reconciliation agreement between the countries did not include the return of their sons' bodies and the two Israeli citizens, Avraham Mengistu and Hishan a-Sayyad, imprisoned in the Gaza Strip.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 3, 2016
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