as "time" reported, "israel officially denied complicity in the car bombing but hardly bothered to conceal its role in disabling the ferry" and suspicions of israeli involvement were further reinforced when israeli transport minister chaim corfu threatened that, if a further attempt was made by the plo, "its fate will be the same". fuad al-bitar, athens representative of the plo told an athens news conference that "it is clear that the only one interested" in the sabotage was israel. in july 2008, haaretz referred to this attack, without admitting israeli responsibility, in the context of the scheduled and ultimately successful free gaza movement voyage which broke israel's siege of gaza.