The Iranian Red Crescent has decided to send two aid ships to Gaza this week and has called for volunteers to act as relief workers and accompany the vessels, the state IRNA news agency reported.

Iranian Red Crescent director Abdolrauf Adibzadeh told IRNA late on Sunday that the decision to send the ships was taken after a meeting with the foreign ministry.

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"One ship will carry donations made by the people and the other will carry relief workers. The ships will be sent to Gaza by end of this week," Adibzadeh said.

A representative of supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards were ready to provide a military escort to cargo ships trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.

"Iran's Revolutionary Guards naval forces are fully prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys to Gaza with all their powers and capabilities," Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's representative inside the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Shirazi said Iran should encourage more international efforts to break the blockade. "We should expose our enemies to a spontaneous global action and not let them achieve their heinous goals," he said.