Turkish ship arrives with Gaza aid

A Turkish ship carrying aid for Gaza arrived in Israel Sunday, a week after the two countries agreed to restore ties that soured over a deadly raid on an aid flotilla.
The Lady Leyla container vessel docked at Ashdod port in the afternoon after departing on Friday, an AFP journalist reported.
Its contents were to be unloaded, inspected and sent on to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, hit by three wars with Israel since 2008 and under an Israeli blockade.
The Panama-flagged ship was carrying 11,000 tons of supplies including food packages, flour, rice, sugar and toys, the Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Turkey had initially pushed for a lifting of Israel’s blockade on Gaza as part of the negotiations to normalize ties, but Israel rejected this.
A compromise was eventually reached allowing Turkey to send aid through Ashdod rather than directly to the Palestinian enclave.
UN officials have called for the blockade to be lifted, citing deteriorating conditions in the territory.
Turkey’s ruling AKP party has friendly ties with Gaza’s Hamas rulers, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause.
Turkey and Israel were formerly close regional allies, but fell out in 2010 when Israeli commandos killed 10 Turkish activists in a raid on an aid flotilla seeking to run the blockade on Gaza.
Under the reconciliation deal, Israel will pay $20 million in compensation to the families of those killed.

Source ; Arab News