ISRAELI NAVAL commandos yesterday intercepted a French vessel attempting to break the country’s maritime blockade on Gaza.
The Dignity al-Karama, with 16 pro-Palestinian activists and journalists aboard, was intercepted by commandos from Israel's Shayetet 13 elite Navy seals, about 12 nautical miles from the Gaza coast. There was no resistance and the operation was over in minutes.
The captain and passengers were transferred to a navy patrol vessel and taken to Ashdod port in southern Israel. Israeli officials said the passengers would be put on flights to their country of origin and be barred from Israel for 10 years. Israel's navy commander said a search of the Dignity al-Karamarevealed no weapons or humanitarian aid.
The French vessel had left from a Greek island on Saturday night after informing the Greek authorities its destination was the Egyptian port of Alexandria. A statement released by activists on the vessel said “this boat symbolises the determination of the international solidarity movement to break the blockade on Gaza and express its support for the 1.6 million Palestinians imprisoned there since 2007”.
The vessel was the only one from the international flotilla that managed to get close to the coast of Gaza. Organisers had hoped that 1,500 activists would sail to Gaza aboard 10-15 vessels bringing humanitarian aid in an effort to break Israel’s maritime blockadeimposed after Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
But Israel persuaded Cyprus and Greece not to co-operate with the flotilla and Turkey also withdrew support. Bureaucratic obstacles, technical difficulties and sabotage, blamed by the organisers on Israel, resulted in most activists returning home. Yesterday's peaceful interception stood in contrast to the storming in May 2010 of the Turkish Mavi Marmara, the flagship vessel of last year's flotilla, when nine Turkish activists were killed by Israeli commandos.
Hamas spokesman Ismail Rudwan condemned the interception of the Dignity al-Karamaas "piracy, a war crime and a violation of the principles of human rights". Arab League secretary-general Nabil Elaraby demanded the international community and the UN security council respond aggressively to Israel's actions.
Israel claimed the blockade was needed to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas. Last year, following the Mavi Marmaraincident, many restrictions on what was allowed into Gaza were lifted, but the naval blockade remained.
In a separate development, three Israeli human rights groups announced yesterday they plan to sue foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman for libel after he called them “terror groups” on Sunday.
“Your comments constitute mendacious, wild, and thuggish incitement which you dreamed up,” the organisations Adalah, Yesh Din and Breaking the Silence wrote to Mr Lieberman in a letter.
His comments came after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not back an initiative by right-wing Knesset members to set up a parliamentary probe to examine left-wing NGOs. The Knesset will vote on the Bill today.