Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    GAZA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- International activists who plan to sail to Gaza to challenge the Israeli blockade against the enclave recently received threats against them and their families, a Palestinian official said on Sunday.

    Despite the "direct and indirect threats," the journalists, human rights and peace activists will not cancel their voyage to the Gaza Strip, said Jamal al-Khodary, an independent Palestinian parliamentarian who leads a lobby against the sanctions Israel imposed on Gaza since last year.

    Al-Khodary blamed Israel on the threats "since it was the only side that opposed the sea trip into Gaza."

    The activists received direct threats on their mobiles in addition to threatens against their families who live in several European and American countries.

    The campaigners will sail from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip soon, using two wooden vessels carrying medical supplies to challenge the Israeli blockade.

    Al-Khodary says the Palestinians will sail to meet the two boats offshore.

    Israel imposed the sanctions last year when Islamic Hamas movement seized control of the coastal Strip.

    Palestinian observers say the siege affected the ordinary Palestinians and actually helped strengthening Hamas financially since it controls the distribution of reduced amounts of food and petrol that Israel allowed into Gaza.