Three Arab-born New Zealand doctors are determined to get to Gaza and offer medical assistance.
However, they're not completely sure whether they'll reach the Gaza coast and step on dry land.
How hopeful was Gaza-born Dr Wasfi Shahin?
He paused before smiling as he told 1News, "Fifty percent. Not more".
But he remained determined.
"I hope I can reach there to see what I left 50 years ago."
We asked Faiez Idais, a Jordan-trained doctor, how dangerous he expected the mission to be.
"If they [the people of Gaza] are in danger, we will be in danger. It's not a problem for us," he said.
"They don't have even water to drink. They don't have food to eat."
"I am a physician," he added. "I can't do anything from here."
Doctor Idais, who was born in Jerusalem, has never been to the Gaza Strip. He searched for words when asked what it will be like to stand on Gaza soil for the first time. After a long pause he simply said, "I don't know".
After another pause he repeated the answer, as his eyes welled up.
The third member of the trio, Iraqi-born Dr Adnan Al-Kenani, took a pragmatic approach.
"If we get an opportunity, if we land there, we can do service on land," he said. "It depends on the circumstances there. But we are purely a health organisation."
The doctors will fly out of Auckland next week to join an international humanitarian effort called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which is assembling ships at the Port of Istanbul. A container vessel and one ship for volunteers is already there, and a third is expected to join soon.
1News spoke to the doctors at a gathering of the East Auckland Islamic Association over Easter as they sought support and donations for their mission.
Several days after meeting the group, at least seven international charity workers were killed in a drone attack by Israeli forces in Gaza. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted responsibility for the attack, and said an investigation would be carried out to prevent a similar incident from being repeated. However, Netanyahu said "this happens in wartime".
Dr Shahin told 1News days before the drone attack that he believed he would be protected in Gaza.
"There's an international team, so I think it will be safe, " he said.
Dr Idais said he believed he could go about his work there.
"I will do my best to treat the injured people. I don't know what is in front of us, and what we will find there," he explained. "But maybe there is some clinic they have, and we will join that clinic. We will try to help."
The New Zealand government's official advice is not to travel to the Gaza Strip or to the waters off it. The Safetravel website adds the government "has an extremely limited ability to provide assistance to New Zealand nationals in Gaza".
Dr Al-Kenani explained that if the team of medics can't land in Gaza, they will at the very least provide support for the international volunteers on board, in the hope that relief supplies can still be offloaded.
"The Kiwi team is participating with a group of other health professionals," he said. "We're going to look after the 200 people on the ship."
Information on how to donate to the humanitarian mission can be found on the Kia Ora Gaza website.
SHARE ME