Israeli Navy blocks activist ship trying to reach Gaza (2nd Roundup)

Jul 1, 2009, 19:34 GMT

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.