IDF Commandos Stop Activists From Breaking Gaza Blockade
The New York Times reports:
Israeli navy commandos peacefully commandeered a catamaran sailed by an international group of Jewish activists on Tuesday trying to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza.
The 10 activists, from Israel, the United States, Britain and Germany, among them an Israeli 82-year-old Holocaust survivor, responded defiantly to the Israeli navy when it hailed to them from a frigate demanding they identify themselves and give their destination.
“We are going to Gaza,” the group responded from the deck of the 30-foot catamaran, Irene, festooned with peace flags and carrying humanitarian aid, according to a Twitter update posted on its Web site.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the vessel was boarded without incident and that “no violence of any kind was used by neither the passengers onboard nor the Israel naval forces.”
The military nicknamed the boat, “the Provocation Yacht.”
The boat’s voyage from Cyprus was another attempt to thwart the blockade after an Israeli assault on a Turkish Gaza-bound aid boat on May 31 in which Israeli commando forces opened fire, killing nine Turkish Islamic activists on board and setting off an international dispute.
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