Beirut  - During a visit to Lebanon Wednesday, the radical Palestinian Hamas movement expressed its gratitude to the Lebanese people and Arab countries who are working on sending aid ships to the Gaza Strip to break a siege imposed on the region by Israel.

"We thank all our brothers in Lebanon and other countries who are working on easing the Zionist oppression of our Palestinian people," Hamas spokesman Ousama Hamadan said.

"Our people are suffering and all the Arab countries should join hands to try to help them survive this blockade," he said.

Israel has tightened its siege on Gaza which started in 2007, when Hamas seized control of the territory and ousted the mainstream Fatah movement from the strip.

Israel cancelled a plan to reopen the border to Gaza Wednesday for humanitarian aid after renewed rocket fire from the salient on Israel overnight.

On Monday, Hamas announced it had agreed to a one-day ceasefire at Egypt's request to allow the aid convoy to enter the strip.

Meanwhile, Lebanese organizers are continuing their efforts to arrange for a cargo ship to sail from Lebanon to Gaza. The European-flagged ship plans to carry dozens of Lebanese activists to Gaza on January 3.

"The preparations are under way and we will sail from the southern port city of Sidon (30 kilometers south of Beirut) to Cyprus where the ship will be searched by the authorities to be given clearance to head to Gaza," Hani Suleiman, one of the organizers told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Wednesday.

"The supplies, which will include power generators and food supplies, were bought from donations made by Lebanese people," he said.

Suleiman is hopeful that the ship, the first cargo ship to sail from Lebanon, a country still officially at war with Israel, will be able to make the trip.

"Our mission is purely humanitarian and there should be no obstacles," he said.

"Our only concern is to ease the suffering endured by the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, who face a humanitarian catastrophe because of the blockade," Suleiman said.

" ... our aim is to help some 1.5 million people who are running out of the aid supplies they depend on."

Since August, several ships carrying activists have managed to reach Gaza from Cyprus. (dpa)