Jun 30, 2009, 11:48 GMT
Gaza/Tel Aviv - Foreign activists on board an aid ship Tuesday ignored orders by the Israeli Navy to turn around, sparking a stand-off some 40 kilometres off the Gaza coast.
The ship of the international, pro-Palestinian Free Gaza movement and carrying a symbolic amount of medical supplies, toys, and reconstruction kits, departed from Larnaca Port in Cyprus early Monday.
But when it arrived off the shores of Gaza before dawn Tuesday, it was surrounded by Israeli gunboats, which ordered it to turn around.
Free Gaza charged in a press release that the Israel Navy threatened to open fire and began blocking its GPS, radar and navigation systems when the ship, dubbed The Spirit of Humanity, refused the orders.
The jamming, it charged, was in violation of international maritime law, threatening the welfare of the ship.
Israel Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor replied that it was the ship which broke international maritime law, because it reported Egypt's Port Said as its destination when it departed from Cyprus, and then changed its destination to Gaza mid-way through the journey.
He said the Israel Navy had warned the activists against entering the waters off the coast of Gaza, stating it was the Israeli military which was responsible for enforcing security in the area.
He said Israel would have to weigh how to proceed if the ship continued to ignore its orders to turn around.
By early Tuesday afternoon, the ship was some 24 nautical miles, or some 44 kilometres, off the Gaza coast, as two Israeli naval vessels continued to flank it.
The crew on board numbers 21 activists from 11 different countries, including Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, 65, a fierce pro-Palestinian campaigner, and former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, 54, the unsuccessful 2008 Green Party presidential candidate.
Huwaida Arraf, the Palestinian-American chairwoman of the Free Gaza movement, said her ship had received security clearance from the Cyprus Port Authorities before its departure. She called Israel's blockade of Gaza 'an act of collective punishment and a blatant violation of international law.'
Israel imposed its stringent blockade on the coastal salient in response to a surge in rocket attacks from Gaza at its southern towns and villages and after the radical Islamist Hamas seized sole control of the strip in June 2007.
Since last summer, Free Gaza has protested the blockade by sending ships to Gaza on eight different occasions.
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Patriot SamJun 30th, 2009 - 17:19:51
Feel good story of the day!
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