The Estelle, carrying 17 activists  including Canadian, Norwegian and Swedish nationals left from the port at Naples, Italy on Saturday. The vessel, which measures 173 feet long, reportedly is carrying humanitarian goods.

The leader of the Norwegian section of the group “Ship to Gaza,” Torstein Dahle, told Reuters that the groups’ goals were the same as that of previous flotillas, namely to end the blockade and bring relief to the people of Gaza.

It will take about two weeks to reach Gaza’s territorial waters, according to AFP.

The ship is part of the “Freedom Flotilla” movement. The movement’s first attempt to break the blockade ended in the deaths of nine Turkish activists after Israeli Navy commandos on May 31, 2010 boarded the Mavi Marmara in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Estelle began its journey in Sweden and toured Europe, including Finland, Spain, and France before arriving last week in the Gulf of Naples.

As part of its illegal blockade on Gaza, Israel’s naval blockade extends to around 37 kilometers from the coast of Gaza, but previous Israeli attacks against solidarity ships were carried out as far as 65 kilometers from the shore.

A second attempt to break the blockade last summer with a coalition of ships setting sail from Athens failed after Greek authorities intercepted the boats, banning their departure.

In November last year, the Israeli navy also intercepted two Irish and Canadian ships  that were trying to breach the blockade in international waters off Gaza.

The assembly approved the resolution with 56 votes in favor, six against, 48 abstentions and 72 absent.

The resolution called on the Israeli government to immediately halt the restrictions it is imposing on the occupied Palestinian territories especially at Gaza crossings, which caused a serious lack of vital medical needs, and to reverse its policies that led to the worsening of the health conditions of Palestinians and rendered many of them dead.

The resolution also required Israel to lift its restrictions on the movement of medical personnel, vehicles, and patients and to enable them to get to health institutions in occupied Jerusalem and outside it.

WHO called for improving the health and incarceration conditions of Palestinian prisoners, especially the women, children, and patients, in Israeli jails.

According to the Gaza health ministry, more than 500 patients have died since the siege came into effect in 2007 either due to lack of badly needed medicines and died while waiting to receive permits in order to leave get medical attention at advanced hospitals outside the territory, imemc.org reported.

Restrictions on the movement of people in and out of the coastal strip as well as export and import have made Gaza isolated from the outside world.

In a statement issued by Amnesty which also condemned Israel’s blockade of Gaza said that the siege, “led to the strangulation of the local economy and resulted in extending the existing humanitarian crisis. The siege is a violation of international law and forms a type of collective punishment that is experienced by 1.6 million Palestinians.