FAMAGUSTA, Cyprus (Reuters) — A group of Jewish activists set sail for Gaza on Sunday in an effort to defy an Israeli sea blockade and highlight the suffering of Palestinians who live in the territory.

Nine activists from Israel, Britain, Germany and the United States left the port here in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus with a small quantity of aid aboard their catamaran, Irene, which sailed under a British flag. Uninterrupted, the trip to Gaza, which is about 220 miles from Famagusta, would take about 24 hours.

The group said they were taking a symbolic load of medicine, a water-purifying kit and other humanitarian aid.

Its oldest member is an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor, Reuven Moskovitz. “Israel doesn’t have moral borders,” Mr. Moskovitz said. “I’m going because I am a survivor. When I was in a ghetto and almost died, I hoped there would be human beings who would show compassion and help.”

Rami Elhanan, an Israeli peace activist whose 14-year-old daughter, Smadar, was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in 1997, said: “I want to raise my voice against evil and draw attention to 1.5 million people under siege. This is inhuman.”

Israel, whose Gaza policies have been under international scrutiny since its marines killed nine Turkish activists in fighting aboard an aid ship on May 31, dismissed the Irene mission as a ”provocation.”

“If they were serious about wanting to transfer aid to Gaza, they could easily do so after undergoing a screening for smuggled weaponry,” an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Andy David, said, referring to ports in Israel and Egypt that have received cargo that was sent over land to the Palestinians after screening.

Asked whether Israel’s navy would try to turn back or intercept the Jewish activists, Mr. David would not comment.

Since the fatal boarding of the Turkish ship, Israel has eased land crossing into Gaza but maintains the naval blockade in what it says is an effort to stop the smuggling of arms to Hamas guerrilla fighters in Gaza.

But the Irene’s captain, Glyn Secker, a 60-year-old Briton, called the scaling back of the restrictions “very small.”

“Gaza is very much a barricaded society with a lot of suffering,” he said.

Famagusta itself has resonance for many Jews. Hundreds of them were interned in camps here from 1946 to 1948 by Britain’s colonial administrators, who ruled Cyprus at the time, as they tried to head to what was then Palestine, which was also under British rule.

Famagusta is now in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus, a breakaway state that is recognized only by Ankara. Ports in southern Cyprus, an area under Greek Cypriot control, were used to launch Gaza-bound activists from 2008 to mid-2009, but Greek Cypriot authorities have banned the sailings.