Activists from the Free Gaza Movement are sending the “Arion” ship, which will sail under the Greek flag with a Greek captain to Gaza. The crew is 30 people – doctors, journalists, and parliament members from Greece, Italy, Belgium, and Israel. Also, there is medical help loaded on board. The organizers of the mission are worried that the Israeli navy can attack “Arion,” especially after on December 30^th they attacked one of their other ships – “Dignity,” which was full of medicines for the ones injured in Gaza.

“Arion” will be in Larnaka on Friday and if everything goes well it should arrive in Gaza on Sunday. “We would like to already be there,” said Professor Vangelis Pisias – member of the Free Gaza movement and one of the participants in the mission. A big part of the crew will be doctors – from Greece, France, USA, and the UK, whose experience is priceless for the citizens of Gaza. Most of them are military doctors for whom this is not the first mission. “One side is having a war and the other one is resisting,” but their strengths are unequal notes Prof. Pisias.

The crew appealed to the Greek government for support in case something unexpected comes along because a mission as this one hides many dangers. “Each attack towards the ship would be planned and if someone of the 30 citizens on the ship is injured it will be a result of a deliberate attack against unarmed citizens,” says the Free Gaza Movement in a statement on their official website http://www.freegaza.org/. The ship will sail on Cyprus waters, after which in international water and then it will enter Gaza, without going close to Israeli waters.

The crew will inform the Israeli navy, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its arrival.

“We are not travelling as adventurers and we have not left logic behind our back. It’s actually the complete opposite,” said Prof. Pisias. “We will just use out right to get to the Gaza port.” There will be two parliament members on board of the ship – Sofia Sakorafa from PASOK and Thodoris Dritzas from SIRIZA. Sofia Sakorafa is not the only woman, who will be part of the mission. Other women are the Spanish journalist Monika Gazia and the Belgium parliament member Julie Freezman.