The Swiss company that had sold cement to Swedish activists planning to sail to Gaza as part of an international aid flotilla said Wednesday that due to "force majeure," it had decided to cancel the deal.

Interbulk has sold the Swedish delegation some 3,000 tons of cement, which were meant to be transferred to Gaza as aid on the Swedish-Greek-Norwegian ship, Free Mediterranean, as part of a Gaza flotilla.

Open gallery view Activists holding placards on the Stefano Chiarini ship in Corfu during a protest against the banning of the flotilla. Credit: Reuters

Interbulk intends on returning the 25,000 euros it had gotten from the organizers, who gathered the money from thousands of donors in Sweden over the course of the past year.

In a letter it sent to the Gaza flotilla organizers, the Swiss company said that it had to cancel the deal due to "force majeure", and attributed the move to the Greek government's ban on Gaza-bound ships as well as to a letter by UN chief Ban Ki-moon discouraging Mediterranean countries from supporting the departure of the Gaza flotilla from their ports.