Here we go again...

More ships headed to Gaza...

The Israel Navy went on high alert Thursday amid forecasts that a flotilla of two vessels from Lebanon was preparing to depart for the Gaza Strip in an effort to break the blockade by the end of the week.

Defense officials said that the navy had deployed ships at sea to stop the Lebanese vessels and that commandos from the navy’s Flotilla 13 – known as the Shayetet – were put on standby in case they would be needed to board the ships to prevent them from sailing into the Gaza Strip. The organizer of the ships is Syrian national Yasser Kashlak.

Two ships are expected to depart Tripoli on either Friday or Saturday to try and break the blockade. One of the ships is carrying women and the other is carrying journalists.

“They want to purposely create a provocation,” one defense official said. “These are also relatively fast ships which means that once they leave, they will be near Gaza fairly quickly.”