Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Israel-Palestine news.


ASHDOD, Israel — Israeli warships on Tuesday intercepted a boat carrying Jewish activists trying to run the naval blockade on Gaza and escorted it to a port in southern Israel, the army and organisers said.
The military said naval forces had taken over the yacht Irene and escorted it to Ashdod, adding that "there was no violence of any sort."
After disembarking, the nine passengers and crew were taken for questioning by police, officials and their lawyer said. Five of those on board are Israelis while the other four are foreign nationals who are likely to be deported.
Army footage of the incident filmed from the air showed two navy corvettes coming alongside the boat, and commandos scrambling on board and taking control of the vessel. There were no signs of violence.
Describing the boat's attempt to reach Gaza as a "provocation", the military said the captain had ignored repeated warnings and had entered a closed naval zone, prompting the interception.
Organisers confirmed that the activists had surrendered without a struggle.
"They surrendered because they were surrounded. They had no choice," said Amjad al-Shawa, a Gaza-based organiser.
Media reports said the passengers had been handcuffed and their phones confiscated, but organisers were unable to confirm the details, saying they had not managed to make contact with the Irene since troops came aboard.
Ahead of the takeover, Yonatan Shapira, one of the Israeli activists on board, told AFP by satellite telephone that the navy had contacted the boat and ordered it to change course.
"They said we were approaching an area under naval blockade and told us to change course," he said as the boat reached the edge of Gaza's territorial waters, some 20 nautical miles from the coast.
The navy also warned that the passengers and crew would be held legally liable if they insisted on heading to Gaza, especially those with Israeli nationality.
The boat is carrying seven Jewish activists from Israel, Britain, Germany and the United States, and two journalists, one of whom is an Israeli.
"The people who were on the boat have been taken off and are waiting for police to question them," said Smadar Ben-Natan, a lawyer representing the activists, adding that she had not yet had access to them.
An interior ministry spokeswoman said the non-Israelis would be taken to the nearby city of Holon where they would be questioned before being taken for deportation.
The boat was carrying a cargo of symbolic aid, including children's toys, musical instruments, textbooks, fishing nets and prosthetic limbs. In the past, Israel has allowed humanitarian goods to enter the enclave after undergoing a security check.
In May, Israeli forces intercepted a six-ship flotilla heading for Gaza but the raid went badly wrong and nine Turkish activists -- including one with US citizenship -- were killed, prompting a wave of international condemnation.
Israel said its troops resorted to force only after they were attacked while rappelling onto the deck of the lead ship. Pro-Palestinian activists on board said the soldiers opened fire as soon as they landed.
Also on Tuesday, Irish Nobel laureate and peace activist Mairead Maguire was prevented from entering Israel because of her participation in an earlier attempt to run the blockade on Gaza, a rights group and Israeli officials said.
The voyage of the Irene was organised by the London-based Jews for Justice for Palestinians.
Prominent British supporters listed on its website include humorist and actor Stephen Fry and Marion Kozak, the mother of newly-elected Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and of former foreign minister David Miliband.
Among the passengers are an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor and an Israeli whose teenage daughter was killed in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
Israel and Egypt sealed Gaza's borders after militants there captured an Israeli soldier in June 2006 and tightened the blockade a year later when the Islamist Hamas movement seized power, allowing in only humanitarian aid.
Israel eased the closures to allow in all purely civilian goods in the aftermath of the deadly flotilla raid, but still restricts dual-use items such as construction materials that could be used to build militant fortifications.

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