Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2015-06-29
Israel has intercepted and taken over a Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
In a statement the Israeli army said on Monday that it did not use force in redirecting the main boat Marianne to the Israeli city of Ashdod.
Petros Stergiou, a spokesperson for the flotilla, told Al Jazeera that organisers lost contact with the Marianne at around 2am local time on Monday morning, as three military boats approached.
“Once again, the Israeli government and its military has acted like state pirates and attacked our boat in international waters.”
Ismail Moola of the Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA) and a spokesman of the Freedom Flotilla Committee who is in Athens told Radio Islam they are saddened by the capture of the flotilla.
“We were hoping they would be in Gaza by now, but the apartheid state has not relented.”
“Yes the Boat was boarded, no casualties reported. The Raid was apparently peaceful…we don’t know if that is the truth as now we are getting the reports from Israeli Press,” said Moola
The Marianne is part of the Freedom Flotilla III – a convoy of four ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists including Arab Israeli lawmaker Basel Ghattas, Tunisia’s former president Moncef Marzouki and at least one European lawmaker.
In 2010, a similar attempt to break the blockade with the “Freedom Flotilla” ended in bloodshed. A pre-dawn raid by Israeli commandos on the Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara killed 10 Turkish activists.
In 2013, Israel apologised for “operational mistakes” in the raid. A compensation deal is still being negotiated between the two countries.
Israeli soldiers and officials who took part in the attack are being tried in absentia in Turkey for war crimes.
Several attempts since have been thwarted, but without bloodshed.
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