Mavi Marmara
Photo: Oren Rosenfeld
Soldier attacked on board
Photo: AFP
IHH to host welcome party for Marmara
Thousands expected to cheer flotilla ship back to home port in Istanbul after lengthy stay in Haifa
The Mavi Marmara, the main ship that participated in a calamitous flotilla to Gaza in May, is set to return to its home port in Turkey Sunday amid festivities planned by the IHH, the group that organized the flotilla.
Bülent Yıldırım, the president of the humanitarian aid group whose assaulted IDF soldiers on board the Marmara, described before the press the welcome the ship would receive.
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"The ship was a symbol of conscience, and now it is a symbol of freedom," he said.
The Marmara, which has been docking in Haifa port, will arrive in Istanbul through the sea after which it was named. On board are family members of the nine activists who were killed during the IDF raid on the vessel.
The IHH expects thousands at the welcome party Sunday, in addition to smaller boats that will circle the port.
In the meantime, another aid convoy is on its way to the Strip – the Asia 1, an "Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan", arrived Friday in Lebanon.
According to the Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar, the convoy visited Sidon and the Hezbollah commemoration site in Mlita. It then continued to Syria, from where members are expected to fly to Egypt and transfer the goods by land.
The convoy left New Delhi on December 1, and after being held up by the Indian authorities succeeded in leaving Pakistan for Iran on the 7th. They were welcomed by the Iranian president and other officials, and a number of parliament members joined them, according to reports. There are some 200 members altogether.
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