Gaza/Tel Aviv - An Israeli naval force took control Tuesday
afternoon of an aid ship with foreign activists on board after it
tried to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and ignored
orders to turn around.
A military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said the Israeli Navy had been
in contact with the ship of the international, pro-Palestinian Free
Gaza movement since early Tuesday and repeatedly warned it not to
enter Gaza's territorial waters.
She said the ship was told Gaza was under a naval blockade but
had disregarded these warnings.
An Israeli naval force finally intercepted, boarded and took over
the boat, she told the German Press Agency dpa, adding the ship was
being directed to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod.
She stressed that no shots were fired during the boarding of the
boat, nor was violence used against the crew, who she said would be
handed over to the Israel Immigration Police once in Ashdod.
'The humanitarian goods found on board will be transferred to
Gaza, subject to authorization,' she said.
The Israeli military 'would like to emphasize that any
organizations or countries that wish to transfer humanitarian aid to
the Gaza Strip can legally do so via the established crossings
between Israel and the Gaza Strip with prior coordination,' she
added.
The Israeli navy action came after the foreign activists on the
ship 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
is carrying a symbolic amount of medical supplies, toys, and
reconstruction kits. It departed from Larnaca 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 and threatened 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
voyage.
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 -
about 44 kilometres - off the Gaza coast, as two Israeli naval
vessels continued to flank it.
The crew on board numbered 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.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly would not
discuss the status of any Americans on the ship but said US
officials in Israel were requesting an opportunity to meet with
them.
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.
USA
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