Israel has freed six of 27 passengers and crew who were aboard two ships intercepted by its navy while trying to run the Jewish state's blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, an official said on Saturday.

Commandos boarded the Irish-flagged Saoirse (Freedom) and the Canadian ship Tahrir (Arabic for Liberation) in international waters off Gaza on Friday before the navy escorted them to the port of Ashdod, the military said.

The Israeli navy on Friday intercepted two international ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists who were trying to break the blockade on Gaza, a military statement said.

"A short while ago, Israel navy soldiers boarded the vessels which were en route to the Gaza Strip, attempting to break the maritime security blockade that is in place in accordance with international law," it said.

Irish activists supporting a new bid to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip urged their government on Thursday to seek Israeli assurances that a new aid flotilla would be allowed free passage.

The two vessels, the Irish Saoirse (meaning Freedom) and the Canadian Tahrir (Liberation in Arabic) which are carrying 27 people, are south-west of Cyprus and expect to reach Gaza by Friday, the activists told a press conference in Dublin.

Turkey will accept foreign aid, including from Israel, to cope with a major earthquake that has left 459 people dead, a diplomatic source said Wednesday.

Turkey initially turned down offers of international aid after Sunday's 7.2-magnitude earthquake, but the source said Ankara changed its mind because of the urgent need for housing materials for those left homeless.

A 29-year-old Palestinian man was killed when a tunnel running underneath the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt collapsed, Palestinian medics said on Tuesday.

The man was identified as Ahmed Arbea, from the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis. Eyewitnesses said he was involved in smuggling through some of the many tunnels that connect the coastal territory to Egypt.

Gaza's ruling Hamas movement announced on Wednesday it would give $2,000 to each prisoner released by Israel to the coastal territory under a landmark prisoner exchange deal.

"It has been decided that to honor the freed prisoners each of them will be given 2,000 U.S. dollars," said a statement from the office of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas government in Gaza.

Fifteen Palestinian prisoners released as part of a swap deal that saw Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit freed from five years of Hamas captivity arrived in the Qatari capital on Wednesday, an official said.

The freed prisoners landed in Doha on a specially chartered Qatari airplane at 3.00 am (00:00 GMT) and were greeted by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Mahmoud, the Palestinian diplomatic official told Agence France Presse.

Crowds of Palestinians, many of them overwhelmed and in tears, welcomed home hundreds of freed detainees in the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday, under a landmark prisoner exchange deal with Israel.

The 477 prisoners, the first of two groups of Palestinian detainees being exchanged for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, arrived in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza late morning Tuesday.

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was freed on Tuesday after five years in detention by Palestinian militants, said he hoped the prisoner swap in which he was liberated would lead to peace between both sides.

"I hope this deal helps achieve peace between both sides, Israel and the Palestinians," he told Egyptian television in his first interview since his release.

Looking dazed, a thin and pale Gilad Shalit emerged from a pickup truck Tuesday under the escort of his Hamas captors and the Egyptian mediators who helped arrange the Israeli tank crewman's release after more than five years in captivity.

Freed in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, an ashen-faced Shalit struggled to breathe in an interview with Egyptian TV minutes after his release, saying that he had feared he would remain in captivity for "many more years." He said he was "very excited" to be headed home and that he missed his family and friends.