Global General

Israel shadows new Gaza-bound ship, activists

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-06-05 13:46

People march through the streets of Zurich during a Pro-Palestinian demonstration against Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla June 4, 2010. [Agencies]

JERUSALEM - The Israeli navy intercepted and was shadowing another ship bound for blockaded Gaza carrying aid and activists on Saturday, five days after the bloody seizure of a Turkish ship triggered an international outcry.

A spokeswoman for the Free Gaza group backing the Rachel Corrie, and a journalist aboard the vessel quoted by Al Jazeera, said warships were following the Irish-owned freighter.

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"We can see some Israeli ships a little away from us. They are following us, there has been no contact," the journalist quoted by the station said an hour or so after dawn.

Activists' contact with the ship was patchy, spokeswoman Greta Berlin said, adding that it had been some 55 km (35 miles) west of Gaza.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said she had no information.

Israel has said it would not let the ship through to its intended destination in Gaza. Berlin said those on the Rachel Corrie would not accept earlier Israeli offers to dock at Israel's Ashdod port and have the supplies sent on over land.

Israel says its blockade of the Gaza Strip, tightened after Islamist Hamas seized the enclave from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction in 2007, aims to keep out arms.

In Washington, the White House said Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip was unsustainable but urged the Gaza aid vessel to divert to an Israeli port to reduce the risk of violence.

"We are working urgently with Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and other international partners to develop new procedures for delivering more goods and assistance to Gaza," Mike Hammer, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said on Friday.

"The current arrangements are unsustainable and must be changed. For now, we call on all parties to join us in encouraging responsible decisions by all sides to avoid any unnecessary confrontations," Hammer said in a statement.

The Irish-owned Rachel Corrie is a converted merchant vessel bought by pro-Palestinian activists and named after an American woman killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003.

On Friday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said: "We will stop the ship, and also any other ship that will try to harm Israeli sovereignty. There is no chance the Rachel Corrie will reach the coast of Gaza."

The Israeli military declined to give prior details of what it planned to do in the event the navy had to intervene.

In Dublin, Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said in a statement: "Those on board the Rachel Corrie have indicated that they are ready to accept inspection of their cargo at sea, prior to docking in Gaza."