Israel detains Gaza-bound boat of pro-Palestinian activists
The Israeli navy took over a trawler carrying
pro-Palestinian activists headed to the Israeli-controlled waters of
the Gaza Strip early Monday, activists and the military said.According to dpa, the navy intercepted and boarded the Marianne in international waters
some 100 nautical miles from Gaza, Irene Macinnes, of the Freedom
Flotilla organization, said from Athens.
The activists had sailed toward Gaza in order to highlight Israel's "inhumane" sea blockade of the coastal strip.
Former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki, Spanish left-wing European Parliament member Ana Miranda and an Arab-Israeli member of the Israeli parliament, Basel Ghattas, are among those on board the Marianne.
The navy had called for hours on the converted fishing trawler to change direction to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, a military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said.
When it refused, naval commandos took control of the vessel around 3:30 am (0030 GMT), briefly boarding and searching it. There was no violence, she said.
The boat was now being towed to Ashdod, the military said.
Three other boats carrying more activists and which were sailing behind the Marianne turned around and would no longer try to reach Gaza, Macinnes said.
"They were quite a way behind and now they have no chance to come to Gaza, so they're going to turn back," she said.
The Freedom Flotilla later said the three boats had always planned to make a U-turn.
In a Gaza City news conference in support of the flotilla, activists slammed the Israeli takeover as an act of "piracy."
Sami Abu Zuhri, the spokesman of the Islamist Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, slammed it as "kidnapping."
Marianne was carrying solar panels that would help alleviate the serious shortage of electricity in Gaza, as well as medical equipment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared a letter for the activists which would be handed to them on arrival in Israel, his office said.
"It seems that you've made a mistake in navigation. Maybe you meant to sail to a place that isn't far from here - Syria. There (Syrian President Bashar) al-Assad's regime slaughters members of his people on a daily basis," said the letter, according to a Hebrew version sent to dpa.
Justifying the Israeli naval blockade on the Gaza Strip, it added that Israel was dealing with a "complex reality," in which Palestinian armed groups were firing missiles from the coastal enclave at Israeli civilian population centres.
"We will not allow the transfer of weapons to the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip through the sea as has happened in the past," the letter said.
In 2010, Israeli commandos boarded boats headed to Gaza, including the Turkish Mavi Marmari passenger ship. Confronted by a number of activists who yielded knives and sticks, they opened fire. Nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed.
It was the third flotilla of its kind. A second group of activists on board several boats attempted to breach the Israeli maritime blockade of Gaza in 2012.
The activists had sailed toward Gaza in order to highlight Israel's "inhumane" sea blockade of the coastal strip.
Former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki, Spanish left-wing European Parliament member Ana Miranda and an Arab-Israeli member of the Israeli parliament, Basel Ghattas, are among those on board the Marianne.
The navy had called for hours on the converted fishing trawler to change direction to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, a military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said.
When it refused, naval commandos took control of the vessel around 3:30 am (0030 GMT), briefly boarding and searching it. There was no violence, she said.
The boat was now being towed to Ashdod, the military said.
Three other boats carrying more activists and which were sailing behind the Marianne turned around and would no longer try to reach Gaza, Macinnes said.
"They were quite a way behind and now they have no chance to come to Gaza, so they're going to turn back," she said.
The Freedom Flotilla later said the three boats had always planned to make a U-turn.
In a Gaza City news conference in support of the flotilla, activists slammed the Israeli takeover as an act of "piracy."
Sami Abu Zuhri, the spokesman of the Islamist Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, slammed it as "kidnapping."
Marianne was carrying solar panels that would help alleviate the serious shortage of electricity in Gaza, as well as medical equipment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared a letter for the activists which would be handed to them on arrival in Israel, his office said.
"It seems that you've made a mistake in navigation. Maybe you meant to sail to a place that isn't far from here - Syria. There (Syrian President Bashar) al-Assad's regime slaughters members of his people on a daily basis," said the letter, according to a Hebrew version sent to dpa.
Justifying the Israeli naval blockade on the Gaza Strip, it added that Israel was dealing with a "complex reality," in which Palestinian armed groups were firing missiles from the coastal enclave at Israeli civilian population centres.
"We will not allow the transfer of weapons to the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip through the sea as has happened in the past," the letter said.
In 2010, Israeli commandos boarded boats headed to Gaza, including the Turkish Mavi Marmari passenger ship. Confronted by a number of activists who yielded knives and sticks, they opened fire. Nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed.
It was the third flotilla of its kind. A second group of activists on board several boats attempted to breach the Israeli maritime blockade of Gaza in 2012.
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