Turkish aid agency Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) presented two new vessels on Wednesday meant to take aid directly to Gaza where Palestinians face famine almost six months into Israel's devastating military campaign.
IHH Chairman Bulent Yildirim inspected the new ships, purchased for a Gaza aid project dubbed "International Freedom Flotilla", in Istanbul's port and said that one of the vessels, the Anadolu (Anatolia), had a capacity of 5,500 tons.
It was not immediately known when the ships would depart for Gaza or where or how they would deliver aid once there. Turkey has so far sent its aid to Gaza through neighboring Egypt.
In 2010, the IHH sent a vessel to Gaza, the Mavi Marmara, in an attempt to breach an Israeli blockade; it was intercepted by the Israeli military in a deadly offshore raid which touched off a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.