Israeli Navy intercepts activists' Gaza-bound boat. This time, no deaths.
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The Israeli Navy has intercepted a Gaza-bound boat with nine Jewish activists on board and escorted it to Israel's Ashdod port.
The activists' set sail from Cyprus on Sunday, hoping to break Israel's blockade of Gaza and deliver supplies, including children's toys. But they had said they would not resist if they were thwarted, and the Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli Navy "peacefully" boarded the activists' boat Tuesday.
The encounter was being closely watched, four months after Israeli commandos raided a similar Gaza-bound boat from Turkey, resulting in a violent struggle that left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead, including eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American.
IN PICTURES: The Gaza flotilla and the aftermath of the Israeli naval raid
The interception also comes at a delicate time for Middle East peace talks. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has called a one-week time-out period and threatened to withdraw from talks after Israel's 10-month settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank expired Sunday.
Earlier Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli activist on board the boat, known as the Irene, saying that two Israeli Navy vessels had escorted the boat for two hours on Tuesday morning, and that other Israeli ships were within view.
"The Army established contact with the captain, and asked him where we are headed," Rami Elhanan, who is aboard the Irene, said. "The Navy asked to bypass the ship from 5 miles to the right, and we complied."
"We said we are headed to Gaza and sailing under the British flag," Elhanan added.
Elhanan also reported that the captain was not told that the boat will be stopped. "I have no idea when, if at all, we will be intercepted," he said.
But the boat's captain said he expected to be intercepted, the Post reported. The Israeli military had said earlier Tuesday it would not intervene until the boat tried to breach the blockade.
The mission has its own Facebook page and Twitter site and has been posting updates, including Google maps of the boat's last known location. The activists "tweeted" at about 25 miles off the coast of Gaza; Israel had said it would intercept the boat and divert it to a nearby port if it comes within 20 miles of the coast, according to the BBC.
The BBC reported that the Irene was carrying "carrying medical equipment, textbooks, nets, and children's toys," and its voyage was organized by the London-based Jews for Justice for Palestinians.
On board are 82-year-old Holocaust survivor Reuven Moskovitz and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli whose daughter Smadar was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in Jerusalem in 1997. Others include a German nurse, British and US peace activists, and an Israeli reporter.
Prominent British supporters listed on the group's website include actor Stephen Fry and Marion Kozak, the mother of the newly elected Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and former Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
Last week the United Nations Human Rights Commission released a report concluding that Israel seriously violated international law in the commando raid in May, saying the conduct of Israeli forces was "disproportionate and excessive," and "demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary violence." (See report.)
The report was met positively by Turkey but dismissed by Israel as “biased." A separate UN flotilla inquiry backed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, which is seen as having more credibility due in part to the involvement of both an Israeli and a Turkish representative, is under way but has yet to present its findings.
RT Today offers this video report on the latest attempt to break the Gaza blockade, in which the executive director of UN Watch dismisses the UN Human Rights Council – and specifically its members Saudi Arabia and Libya – as a political body.
IN PICTURES: The Gaza flotilla and the aftermath of the Israeli naval raid
