Israeli troops encounter no resistance when boarding Gaza aid ship
The Israeli military said its forces seized a Gaza-bound aid vessel today, preventing it from breaking a maritime blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.
The military said its forces boarded the 1,200-tonne MV Rachel Corrie cargo ship from the sea.
They said that helicopters were not used to board the Irish boat, and no resistance was encountered.
The takeover stood in marked contrast to a violent confrontation at sea earlier this week when Israeli forces blocked a Turkish aid vessel trying to break the blockade. At the time, Israeli commandos rappelled from helicopters and a clash with passengers left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead.
Army spokeswoman Lt Col Avital Leibovich said today’s takeover took only a few minutes and that the vessel was being taken to Israel’s Ashdod port.
The Irish ship – named for an American college student who was crushed to death by a bulldozer in 2003 while protesting Israeli house demolitions in Gaza – was carrying hundreds of tonnes of aid, including wheelchairs, medical supplies and cement.
The stand-off has raised international pressure on Israel to lift the three-year-old blockade that has plunged the territory’s 1.5 million residents deeper into poverty.
Activists on board the boat, including Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan, had said they would not resist if Israeli soldiers tried to take over their vessel.
This latest attempt to breach the blockade differs significantly from the flotilla the Israeli troops intercepted on Monday, killing eight Turks and a Turkish-American after being set upon by a group of activists.
Nearly 700 activists had joined that operation, most of them aboard the lead boat from Turkey, the Mavi Marmara, that was the scene of the violence.
That boat was sponsored by an Islamic aid group from Turkey, the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief.
Israel outlawed the group, known by its Turkish acronym IHH, in 2008 because of alleged ties to Hamas. The group is not on the US State Department list of terror organisations, however.
By contrast, the MV Rachel Corrie was carrying just 11 passengers from Ireland and Malaysia, whose effort was mainly sponsored by the Free Gaza movement, a Cyprus-based group that has renounced violence. Nine crew were also on board.
