Palestinians: Aid boat en route from Libya to Gaza

Independent legislator Jamal Khoudary said the ship left the Libyan port of Zawara carrying 3,000 tons of food, medicine, blankets and powdered milk. He said it would arrive in Gaza early next week.

Libyan officials declined comment, but witnesses saw the al-Marwa leave the port Tuesday evening.

The Libyan boat follows three other vessels that have sailed to Gaza from Cyprus since August to break the Israeli blockade, which was imposed last year to put pressure on the territory's Hamas government.

The earlier boats, organized by the private U.S.-based Free Gaza advocacy group, carried international activists and some aid supplies. Israel's navy let them through, saying it wanted to deny the protesters the publicity they would gain from a confrontation.

The Libyan vessel, however, presents a far bigger test. It would be the first significant shipment of goods to reach Gaza. It also is the first time a country, and an Arab one at that, has sought to defy the blockade.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor would not say how Israel would deal with the Libyan boat, saying only that each case is considered separately. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Shlomo Brom, a strategic expert at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said Israel should consider letting the Libyan boat through, noting the North African nation has taken a pro-Western tilt in recent years. But he said the cargo should be checked.

"It depends what's on board. If there is something that can pose a threat, then Israel should stop it, but if not there is no good reason to do so," Brom said.

Israel imposed the blockade after Hamas, an Islamic group hostile to Israel, violently seized power in Gaza in June 2007. The closure was tightened in response to rocket barrages by Palestinian militants into Israel. Egypt has also kept its crossing with Gaza shut.