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Israeli soldiers have boarded an aid ship bound for the Gaza Strip and forced it to head to the Israeli port of Ashdod instead.
The Israeli military said in a statement that troops boarded MV Rachel Corrie on Saturday after activists aboard the ship ignored warnings to divert to Ashdod.
"There was no violence or injuries amongst the soldiers or crew ... and no shots were fired," the statement said.
Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the Israeli port of Ashdod, said the ship had arrived at the port, escorted all the way by Israeli military vessels.
"The aid will be taken off and inspected," Rowland said.
"It is not clear how much of it will be taken to Gaza. We can expect the passengers to be deported fairly promptly."
Activists on board the Malaysia-funded Irish ship were attempting to break the siege of Gaza imposed by Israel, five days after Israeli troops violently intercepted a flotilla of aid ships carrying humanitarian aid for the territory, killing nine activists.
Israeli naval vessels trailed the ship for several hours before boarding it. Rachel Corrie's radar were also jammed, cutting off all radio communication.
Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for the Israeli government, told Al Jazeera that the ship was boarded by soldiers at the edge of the maritime zone of Gaza in agreement with those on board.
"The people on board will be taken care off in accordance with Israeli law, as they have approached Israel illegally, so they will be asked to leave voluntarily," she said.
Eisin said the cargo would be offloaded at Ashdod and then transferred to Gaza.
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said naval forces involved in Saturday's operation had followed exactly the same procedures as they had done earlier in the week, but the difference lay in the attitude of the activists on board the vessel.
"We saw today the difference between a ship of peace activists, with whom we don't agree but respect their right to a different opinion from ours, and between a ship of hate organised by violent Turkish terror extremists ... waiting for our soldiers on the deck with axes and knives," Netanyahu's office cited him as saying.
On the other hand, Mukhriz Mahathir, head of the Perdana Global Peace Organisation, a Malaysian non-governmental organisation that sponsored the Rachel Corrie, said people would be willing to contribute to further aid ships.
"These actions have finally succeded in raising lots of awareness," he said.
"But for the moment, we are upset that these aid goods have not reached their destination."
The developments surrounding the Rachel Corrie came as the UN human-rights chief said that Israel could face prosecution for the deadly flotilla raid, and that she was following requests for a referral to the International Criminal Court [ICC] in the Hague.
| The UN human rights chief said Israel could face prosecution for its raid on aid ships [AFP] |
"I am following very closely the very many calls that come particularly from civil society and from all the people who are suffering in Palestine for that kind of action to be taken," Navi Pillay, the high commissioner for human rights, said in Kampala, Uganda, where she attended the ICC's ongoing review conference.
She said she believed Israel's blockade of Gaza violates international law.
"International humanitarian law prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of warfare ... It is also prohibited to impose collective punishment on the civilian population, so it is [for those reasons] that I have consistently reported to member states that the blockade is illegal and must be lifted," Pillay said.
"Even if it is demonstrated that the blockade is legal under international law, Israel's current military operations against the flotilla must be analysed from the perspective of its obligation to allow humanitarian aid to be brought into the Gaza strip."
Pro-Palestinian activists had earlier said they were determined to press ahead towards the Gaza coast, despite the Israeli warnings.
"We are not afraid and we are all advocating non-violence… and we will just sit here and go if they insist on commandeering our boat and forcing us into Ashdod," Mairead Maguire, an activist and Nobel Peace laureate aboard Rachel Corrie, said before radio contact with the ship was lost.
The Israeli military had cautioned that troops would consider storming the ship, if it continued its journey towards Gaza.
In a statement, the Israel navy warned the ship that it was "approaching an area of hostilities which is under a naval blockade. The Gaza area, coastal region and Gaza Harbour are closed to all maritime traffic."
Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, told Al Jazeera that the military had a government directive to make sure the ship does not reach Gaza.
| Israel's raid of Gaza-bound aid ships has led to global protests against its siege on Gaza [AFP] |
Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston, reporting from Gaza, said the ship had hundreds of tonnes of aid, including medical supplies, wheelchairs, cement, building materials and even note-pads for children.
Dennis Halliday, the former UN assistant secretary-general who is also on board the ship, said on Friday that they expected Israeli military to intercept them.
"The cargo was checked three times - by trade unions in Ireland, by a member of the Irish senate, as well as Irish customs at the port," he said.
"The cargo is sealed and we can't even access it ourselves," he said, explaining why they refused to take the ship to Ashdod.
The ship, carrying 11 activists and eight crew members, is named after an American woman who was killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003, while trying to protest a house demolition.
Meanwhile in Washington the US said Israel's blockade on Gaza was unsustainable.
"We are working urgently with Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and other international partners to develop new procedures for delivering more goods and assistance to Gaza," Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement.
"The current arrangements are unsustainable and must be changed. For now, we call on all parties to join us in encouraging responsible decisions by all sides to avoid any unnecessary confrontations."
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Gaza aid ship taken to Israeli port
MV Rachel Corrie di tawan Israel akhirnya... VideoClip
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli navy boarded another Gaza-bound aid ship on Saturday after Washington condemned as "unsustainable" a blockade which Israel enforced earlier this week by killing nine people on a Turkish vessel.
Israel orthodox Jews look at the Mediterranean sea at the port of Ashdod June 5, 2010. he Israeli navy boarded another aid ship bound for Gaza on Saturday. (REUTERS/Baz Ratner) |
The Israeli navy, whose action on Monday triggered an international outcry, took control of the Rachel Corrie without incident, the Israeli military said.
The boat had ignored Israeli orders to divert to Israel's Ashdod port where Israel had offered to unload the cargo and deliver it to Gaza after inspecting it.
"According to initial reports, there was no violence or injuries amongst the soldiers or the crew, as the use of force was unnecessary and no shots were fired," the Israeli military said in a statement.
Carrying Irish and other activists, the ship was the latest to attempt to break the four-year old blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza with the stated aim of stopping its Hamas rulers from strengthening their arsenal to fight the Jewish state.
"This has been another brazen act of Israeli piracy on the High Seas," said Kevin Squires, national coordinator of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Dublin, one of whose members was aboard the boat named after a pro-Palestinian activist killed in Gaza in 2003.
Autopsy results found 30 bullets in the bodies of the activists killed this week, a British newspaper reported.
They were all Turks, including one with U.S. citizenship. Ankara's already strained ties with Israel, once an ally, are at an all-time low.
In the clearest sign yet that this week's bloodshed might lead to a modification of the blockade, the United States said the embargo was "unsustainable and must be changed".
Israel stops cement and other materials it says could be used by Hamas for military purposes from entering the territory controlled by the group since 2007. It also stops other goods with no obvious military application.
Hamas, an Islamist group backed by Syria and Iran, is hostile to Israel and does not recognise interim peace agreements signed by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
BLOCKADE "ILLEGAL", RIGHTS COMMISSIONER SAYS
Friends and foes alike have heaped criticism on Israel this week over the blockade. Israel's main ally, the United States, has expressed more sympathy than most for its security concerns but has also spoken of the need for Palestinians in Gaza to receive adequate supplies.
"We are working urgently with Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and other international partners to develop new procedures for delivering more goods and assistance to Gaza," a spokesman for the White House National Security Council said.
"The current arrangements are unsustainable and must be changed. For now, we call on all parties to join us in encouraging responsible decisions by all sides to avoid any unnecessary confrontations," he added in a statement.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay increased the pressure on Israel, saying the embargo, which has blighted the lives of the 1.5 million people, was illegal and should be lifted.
"International humanitarian law prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and ... it is also prohibited to impose collective punishment on civilians," she said.
Already buffeted by a series of diplomatic storms over the last year, analysts expect Israel to at least modify the blockade. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering some form of international role in enforcing an arms embargo, while letting in civilian goods, Israeli officials have said.
TURKISH ANGER
Israel has also faced calls for an international probe into incident. Israeli officials have proposed a foreign role in an Israeli inquiry.
Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday that autopsy results on the nine dead Turkish activists from Monday's raid showed they had been shot a total of 30 times, many at close range. Five were killed by gunshots to the head, it said.
Turkish-American activist Fulkan Dogan was shot five times from less than 45 cm (18 inches) away, in the face, the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back, the paper said. In addition to those killed, 48 others received gunshot wounds and six activists were still missing.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, his popularity on the rise in the Arab world, harangued Israel on Friday about ignoring the Biblical commandment "Thou shalt not kill".
"I am speaking to them in their own language. The sixth commandment says 'thou shalt not kill'. Did you not understand?" Erdogan said in a televised speech to party supporters.
"I'll say again. I say in English 'you shall not kill'. Did you still not understand?. So I'll say to you in your own language. I say in Hebrew 'Lo Tirtzakh'."
(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem, Andras Gergely in Dublin, Ibon Villelabeitia in Ankara and Alister Bull in Washington; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
Source: The Star
Israel boards Gaza aid ship; embargo in focus
Gaza Aid Mission : Misi Bantuan Gaza