The Israeli navy on Friday boarded two boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists toward the Gaza Strip in a fresh challenge to Israel’s blockade of the Islamist-controlled territory.
The military said in a statement the boats — a Canadian vessel called Tahrir and an Irish boat named Saoirse — which together had 27 people on board, would be taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
“The Israel navy soldiers operated as planned and took every precaution necessary to ensure the safety of the activists onboard the vessels as well as themselves,” the statement said.
Photo: REUTERS
A military source said nobody was injured in the operation.
In May last year, Israeli commandos boarded the Turkish Mavi Marmara aid vessel to enforce the naval blockade of the Palestinian enclave and killed nine Turks in clashes with activists, some of them armed with clubs and knives.
Israel spurned Ankara’s demand for an apology over the incident. Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador two months ago.
Carrying a small amount of medical supplies, the Canadian and Irish boats had sailed from Turkey on Wednesday. The Israeli military said they were in international waters when they were stopped, between 64 and 96km from the coast.
The activists on board came from Australia, Canada, Ireland and the US and included Palestinians and at least one Arab citizen of Israel, organizers said.
The two boats had continued sailing toward Gaza, ignoring instructions to turn around or unload their supplies in Israel or neighboring Egypt, Israeli military officials said.
Citing the need to prevent weapons smuggling, Israel has blockaded Gaza since the Islamist group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the US agreed that Israel’s interception of the boats was a measure “appropriate for their [Israel’s] security.”
Israeli authorities said once the two boats had reached Ashdod, they would undergo security checks. Those on board would be questioned, then taken to prison service holding facilities where they will wait until booked on flights back home.
They have the right to a court hearing before being deported.
Pro-Palestinian groups behind the latest attempt to reach Gaza by sea condemn the blockade as illegal and inhumane.
“We are going to keep sending boats until the immoral blockade of Gaza is lifted,” Claudia Saba, a spokeswoman for the Irish Ship to Gaza group, told Irish state broadcaster RTE.
Paul Murphy, a socialist member of the European Parliament on board one of the ships, wrote in an earlier blog post that the mission was in “response to the call from people within Gaza to try to break the siege they suffer under.”
Israel allows humanitarian aid, food and some other supplies into Gaza for its 1.7 million people, many of them impoverished refugees, via land crossings it closely monitors. Gaza also has a border with Egypt over which goods are imported.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including