Global General

Israeli navy intercepts Gaza-bound protest boat

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-28 21:47

JERUSALEM/GAZA - Israeli naval commandos intercepted, stopped and boarded a small craft with nine pro- Palestinian activists bound for Gaza shortly before noon Tuesday, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

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"The army established contact with the captain, and asked him where we are headed," Rami Elhanan, who is aboard the boat "Irene", told Israel Radio.

"The navy asked to bypass the ship from 5 miles to the right, and we complied," Elhanan said.

Captain Glynn Secker told reporters via a satellite telephone that his craft was about 40 kilometers off the Gaza coastline.

The craft, which left the port of Famagusta in Cyprus on Sunday, was planning to break Israel's three-year-old maritime blockade of the coastal enclave.

Israel said that craft trying to bring aid to Gaza must offload at an Israeli port, such as nearby Ashdod, where the cargo will be transshipped to Gaza.

"We will not obey them, we will not help them," Secker said, according to the local Ha'aretz daily. "But we will not confront them physically. We will engage in no violence," Secker said.

Among the European and American Jewish activists on board is organizer Itamar Shapira, a veteran anti-Israeli activist and supporter of the Palestinian cause.

"The IDF has not spoken to us yet, but we have understood that it declared it would stop us 40 kilometers from the shore," Shapira told the Ynet news site. "Members of the Free Gaza campaign, TV cameras, and a warm welcome await us on shore, so we hope to reach it."

Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor said "The procedure (on dealing with the Irene) will be the same as with all other flotillas."

First, radio contact will be established, and they will be asked where they're headed...if they say they're headed to Gaza, we will make it clear that the area faces an international blockade and arrival there is forbidden, and offer that they sail elsewhere."

"If they insist on Gaza, once they enter the forbidden zone they will be detained and towed to Ashdod," Palmor said.

Israel Army radio reported at noon that the commandos succeeded in taking over peacefully, and that the craft is, indeed, headed for Ashdod Port.

Amjad Al-Shawa of the Palestinian NGOs Network called the incident as "maritime piracy." He added that Israel "threatened" the 10 activists and the crew "to prevent them from reaching Gaza."

Since the end of Israel's three-week war on Gaza in Jan 2009, the Israeli navy has been forcefully preventing any aid boat from entering Gaza's waters, and diverting them to El-Arish port city in nearby Egypt, instead, or taking them to its ports for security inspection if they insisted to continue sailing to Gaza.

On May 31, Israeli commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian Turks in maritime showdown when a Gaza-bound aid flotilla refused to turn back.

Israel imposed the siege in June 2007 when Islamic Hamas movement, which doesn't recognize Israel, took over Gaza, home to 1.5 million people, by force.