The British journalist and sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Israel is preventing her from leaving the Gaza Strip, more than a week after she entered the territory in defiance of an Israel blockade.

Lauren Booth said she has been trying to leave Gaza since Friday, but was turned away at Israeli and Egyptian border crossings.

Booth was among 46 pro-Palestinian international activists with the Free Gaza Movement who sailed into Gaza waters on Aug. 23 to draw attention to Israel's blockade, which has prevented the area's 1.4 million Palestinians from traveling abroad and crippled the local economy.

"I'd actually like to say 'thank you very much' to the Israeli authorities at Erez for giving me this fantastic chance to feel just exactly what it is like to be inside what is effectively the world's largest internment camp, where individuals who should have the right to travel under international law are withheld in a 40 kilometer by 10 kilometer camp," Booth told the BBC.

Most of the protesters left Gaza on the same boats last Thursday and sailed to Cyprus, but Booth and several other activists chose to remain behind to do human rights work.

Booth said she has turned to British diplomats in the region to get her out of Gaza. "High-level diplomatic maneuvering is going on when none should be needed," she said.

She said she has not spoken to Blair, who now serves as the international community's Mideast peace envoy. Israeli decision to ban departure of pro-Palestinian international activists "was a chance for them to experience the reality of the siege," a Palestinian lawmaker said on Thursday.

"This is an opportunity for them to share the feeling of the Palestinian people," said Jamal al-Khodary, an independent lawmaker who leads a committee against the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

"I hope this move could be an occasion to end the issue of the siege, the stranded people and the closed crossing points," al-Khodary said.