Ashdod, Israel // Israel on Monday halted a flotilla seeking to defy its blockade of Gaza and redirected one of the vessels to an Israeli port.
Among the passengers on the ship were Tunisia’s former president Moncef Marzouki and Arab Knesset member Basel Ghattas.
The flotilla of four boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists had been seeking to reach Gaza to highlight the Israeli blockade of the territory that they called “inhumane and illegal”.
Three of the boats were said to have turned back while a fourth, the Marianne of Gothenburg, was boarded by the Israeli navy and was escorted to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
The activists’ campaign came as Israel faced heavy international pressure over its actions in Gaza, with a UN report last week saying both the Jewish state and Palestinian militants may have committed war crimes during a 50-day conflict in the besieged coastal enclave last summer.
More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, while Israel put the number of its dead at 67 soldiers and six civilians.
The reconstruction of thousands of homes in Gaza destroyed during the fighting between Israel and the militant group Hamas, the territory’s de facto rulers, is yet to begin, and both Israel’s blockade and a lack of support from international donors have been blamed.
After the overnight operation to stop the flotilla, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded the navy’s actions and insisted his government was right to take action against Hamas.
“In accordance with international law, the Israeli navy advised the vessel several times to change course,” the military said.
“Following their refusal, the navy visited and searched the vessel in international waters in order to prevent their intended breach of the maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“The forces have reported that use of force was unnecessary, and that the process was uneventful,” it said. “The vessel is currently being escorted to Ashdod port and is expected to arrive within 12-24 hours.”
A military spokeswoman confirmed that the vessel was the Swedish-flagged Marianne of Gothenburg, part of the so-called Freedom Flotilla III.
Organisers of the flotilla said the vessel was a fishing trawler carrying medical equipment and solar panels with 18 people from nine countries on board.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition questioned Israel's version of the operation and said on its website that it had "no reason to believe that Marianne's capture was 'uneventful'".
Hamas, in a statement as well as in comments on Twitter, condemned the “kidnapping” of the activists, adding that “this ship succeeded in showing the crime of the blockade”.
The other three ships had changed their course and were "heading back to their ports of origin", according to a statement by Canadian Boat to Gaza issued by the activists before the Israeli navy commandeered the Marianne.
Israel’s immigration authority said the foreign activists on board would be granted a hearing before being deported, as was the case with Gaza-bound boats intercepted by Israel in 2012.
Mr Ghattas was expected to face a hearing in a parliamentary committee on whether he should face sanctions.
Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza in 2006 after Hamas captured an Israeli soldier, and tightened it a year later when the movement consolidated its rule.
Israel controls the waters around Gaza and residents are not allowed to travel six nautical miles from the coast. Land crossings are also strictly controlled by Israel apart from the Rafah checkpoint with Egypt.
A number of flotillas had reached Gaza prior to May 2010, when 10 Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara were killed in an Israeli raid on a six-ship flotilla.
Since then, several ships manned by pro-Palestinian activists have tried to reach the shores of Gaza, but they have all been repelled by the Israeli navy.
Critics of the blockade have called for it to be fully lifted to allow reconstruction, warning that without it an ongoing humanitarian crisis could fuel further conflict.
Some “1.8 million Palestinians are living in disgraceful, prison-like conditions as a result of Israel’s military siege of both sea and land,” Mr Ghattas said in a letter to Mr Netanyahu before the flotilla set sail.
* Agence France-Presse
