The two boats carrying international campaigners sailing from Cyprus to break an Israeli siege arrived at a port of the coastal enclave on Saturday afternoon, where they were embraced by thousands of Palestinians, who have been waiting at the port to greet them.
In a news conference they held in Gaza one day after Israel allowed the boats to enter, the activists said they came from 17 countries "and represented millions of people who are in solidarity with the Gaza Strip."
Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip last year in a bid to isolate Islamic Hamas movement which took over the coastal Strip by force.
Mushier al-Farra, a Palestinian who came on the boat, said such a voyage to Gaza, which is the first in decades, "has opened the door to break the siege and inaugurated a navigation way into the Gaza Strip."
Al-Farra said the campaigners received threats "but did not retreat from making their way into Gaza."
The protest organizer Paul Larudee said the arrival into Gaza "was a dream that came true."
The two small wooden boats, which left Cyprus on Friday, carried about 40 international peace and human rights activists from Free Gaza Movements and medical supplies for children in the strip, in a bid to challenge the year-long blockade Israel imposed upon the Gaza Strip.
