(CNN) — Two days after Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, another ship packed with activists and assorted supplies sailed defiantly toward the Palestinian territory.

The Rachel Corrie, a ship named for an American activist killed in Gaza several years ago, was planning to arrive in Gaza late Friday or early Saturday. The vessel left Ireland carrying 550 tons of cement, educational materials, toys and medical equipment — the latest effort by peace activists to deliver food and break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

Free Gaza Movement activist Derek Graham said that once the Rachel Corrie reaches Gaza, they intend to unload the vessel and return to Ireland.

However this risks further confrontation with Israel, which is intent on halting ships from delivering aid to Gaza because it fears military materiel will be delivered to militants in the Hamas-controlled territory.

How has the world reacted to the raid?

It won’t be the last ship attempting to break the blockade. The European Campaign to End Siege on Gaza announced on Wednesday that it has received the funding of the first three ships of a new fleet headed to Gaza.
Edward Peck, a former U.S. ambassador to Mauritania who was a passenger on one of the ships in the flotilla, said Wednesday he hopes Israel doesn’t respond to the Rachel Corrie in the same way its military did to the Miva Marmara vessel Monday. He said it won’t serve Israeli or U.S. interests.

“The Israelis had said that their response is going even more proactive than before,” Peck told CNN’s “American Morning.” “I hope they don’t do it.”

The commando raid that led to the deaths of nine people and the wounding of many more early Monday continues to focus much of the world’s attention.

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It has sparked outrage in capitals across the world and on the streets, from the Americas to Asia, with many decrying the latest actions as well as Israel’s ongoing blockade of Gaza.

In Central America, Nicaragua announced it was suspending relations with Israel. In Saudi Arabia, the Organization of Islamic Conference — a group representing Muslim nations — will be meeting at the foreign ministry level to huddle over the incident.

“For years, many in the international community have been complicit in a policy that aimed at isolating Gaza in the hope of weakening Hamas,” said the International Crisis Group, the think tank that denounced the Israeli action.

“This policy is morally appalling and politically self-defeating. It has harmed the people of Gaza without loosening Hamas’ control. Yet it has persisted regardless of evident failure.”

Turkey, whose citizens were killed and injured in the flotilla violence, and the Turkish citizenry are seething over the incident. Its prime minister has delivered strong rhetoric toward the Jewish state — a one-time close ally — and its ambassador has been yanked from Tel Aviv.

Turkish officials have said they want Israel to end the Gaza blockade to return to normal ties. But in the meantime, their relationship continues to fray.

In the first known military fallout from the Israeli action, a U.S. official said Turkey will informally cancel a trilateral military exercise with the United States and Israel set for August in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Attorneys for a Muslim humanitarian group have filed a petition asking Turkish prosecutors to sue Israel for murder.

The Gaza issue is spurring both security alarms and moral consternation among many Israelis, who see themselves as between a rock and a hard place when it comes to how to approach the issues in that territory.

The Israeli government is concerned that lifting the blockade will help replenish militant groups intent on staging attacks against Israelis. At the same time, many Israelis are disturbed by the dire living conditions in Gaza.

The Israeli state attorney general’s office, in a response to the High Court on two petitions regarding the flotilla, defended the Israeli actions on Wednesday. It said the “Hamas terrorist organization” controls Gaza and is intent on deliberately assaulting civilians.

As a result, Israel has been intent on thwarting the infiltration of weapons and ordnance from tunnels between Egypt and Gaza and has imposed a naval blockade on Gaza to stop the weapons smuggling.

Q&A: Aid and Israel’s Gaza blockade

“The blockade is not intended to harm residents of the Strip. It is designed to prevent direct and free access to the Gaza Strip, not via Israel, in order to thwart, minimize, block and hinder the Gaza Strip from becoming a giant arsenal for the terrorist organizations to use in deliberately targeting Israelis in the framework of murderous terrorist actions that have been perpetrated over the years,” the office said.

After Monday’s incident, the Israeli government detained around 600 flotilla passengers and held them at the Beer Sheva prison.

On Wednesday, all foreign detainees left the prison amid the international uproar over the raid, and they were taken to Ben Gurion Airport, where they headed home. Four Israeli Arab activists on the flotilla, however, remain in Israeli custody; a judge on Monday night remanded them till June 8.

As for the Rachel Corrie, the Free Gaza Movement said the ship was inspected in Ireland for weapons by customs officials and a senator from the Irish Green Party. No weapons were found. There are five Irish and six Malaysian people on the boat. The paid crew members include a Briton, a Cuban and six Filipinos.

Reflecting on the flotilla efforts, Peck told “American Morning” that “our hope was let’s put a wedge into the situation and provide an opportunity for a peaceful humanitarian act to be seen as accepted by everyone.”

But he acknowledged that “people like myself are perhaps unrealistically hopeful that the Israeli government would have seen this is an opportunity to have it just go the other way.”