Palestinian and Hamas flags flew at the funeral of a Turkish activist Friday, as Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said ties with Israel may be cut to a minimum after a raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza. The father of Cevdet Kiliclar collapsed beside his son's coffin as thousands knelt in prayer at Istanbul's Beyazit Mosque to mourn the 38-year-old journalist who had been working for the Turkish Islamic charity that organized the aid flotilla. “We may plan to reduce our relations with Israel to a minimum,” Arinc told the NTV news channel in an interview. “But to assume everything involving another country is stopped in an instant, to say we have crossed you out of our address book, is not the custom of our state,” he said. Addressing a news conference, Bulent Yildirim, the head of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), denied that his charity had direct links to Hamas or ties to militants, describing it as Israeli “propaganda”. He said three people his charity had listed Thursday as missing had been located, and were being treated for wounds in Ankara. He had no news on the whereabouts of a southeast Asian doctor who he said was shot while helping an Israeli soldier. Meanwhile, an Irish aid boat steaming toward Gaza still plans to break the Israeli blockade, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who is on board vowed Friday, saying its passengers and crew “are not afraid.” The MV Rachel Corrie should be within 40 km of the coast of the Palestinian territory by early Saturday, Mairead Maguire told Ireland's RTE state radio. “We don't have contact with the Israelis and the Israelis haven't contacted anyone on board this boat, but we are all fully committed to sailing the boat to Gaza,” she said by satellite phone. “We do know that one of the suggestions that seems to be coming is Israel thinks that we would take this boat and its cargo to Ashdod. “But we have no intention of going to Ashdod which is in Israel. “We are not afraid,” she said. Access to Al-Aqsa restricted Israeli police Friday restricted access to Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld also said police “are on high alert across the country and particularly in Jerusalem,” adding that hundreds of officers are deployed around the Old City. – Agencies Only women and men over 40 were allowed to attend Friday prayers at the mosque compound, he said. __
