Israel seizes Gaza-bound ship
The Israeli navy has seized a ship sailed by pro-Palestinian activists who were trying to break Israel's maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip
The Israeli navy has seized a ship sailed by pro-Palestinian activists who were attempting to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it did not use force in redirecting the boat Marianne to the Israeli port city of Ashdod.
The ship is part of the Freedom Flotilla III - a convoy of four ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists including Arab Israeli lawmaker Basel Ghattas, Tunisia's former president Moncef Marzouki and at least one European lawmaker.
Flotilla spokesperson Petros Stergiou told Al Jazeera that organisers lost contact with the Marianne at around 2am local time on Monday morning, as three military boats approached.
"What we learned is that the Israeli navy attacked the Marianne around 100 nautical miles from the shore of Gaza," Stergiou said. "They said they could see three military boats approaching them that had identified themselves as being military. Once again, the Israeli government and its military has acted like state pirates and attacked our boat in international waters."
Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner said the seizure of the ship was "uneventful" and it would now be escorted to Ashdod in southern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Israeli navy for detaining the passengers on the ship.
"This flotilla is nothing but a demonstration of hypocrisy and lies that is only assisting the Hamas terrorist organisation and ignores all of the horrors in our region," Netanyahu said.
The flotilla is the latest in a series of protest voyages against Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza. In 2010, nine Turkish activists were killed aboard another vessel amid clashes with Israel commandos who had boarded the boat. In 2013, Israel apologised for "operational mistakes" in the raid and compensation deal is still being negotiated between the two countries. Israeli soldiers and officials who took part in the attack are being tried in absentia in Turkey for war crimes. Further attempts since have been thwarted, but without bloodshed.
