Zionists attack Gaza-bound Jewish boat

“Ten Israeli warships forced the boat to head for Ashdod by force,” said Amjad al-Shawa, a Gaza-based organizer. “They surrendered because they were surrounded. They had no choice,” he added.

Shortly before the takeover, the warships had surrounded the vessel, the Irene, and warned they would stop it by force if it stayed on course for the Gaza Strip.

Media reports said the passengers had been handcuffed and their phones confiscated, but organizers were unable to confirm the details, saying they had not managed to make contact with the Irene since it was taken over.

Yonatan Shapira, one of the Israeli activists on board, told AFP on Sunday that the crew would not cooperate if asked to sail the vessel to Ashdod.

Ahead of the takeover, Shapira told AFP by satellite telephone that the navy had contacted the Irene and ordered it to change course.

“They said we were approaching an area under naval blockade and told us to change course,” he said as the boat reached the edge of Gaza's territorial waters, some 20 nautical miles from the coast.

The navy also warned that the passengers and crew would be held legally liable if they insisted on heading to Gaza, especially those with Israeli nationality. Five of those on board are Israelis.

The sound of a voice over a megaphone urging the Irene to “change course” could be heard in the background.

The boat is carrying seven Jewish activists from Israel, Britain, Germany and the United States, and two journalists, one of whom is an Israeli.

The activists had insisted they were not looking for a confrontation with the Zionist forces.

“We have a policy of non-violence and non-confrontation,” Shapira, a former Israeli pilot, told AFP on Sunday. “But if the Israeli army stops the boat, we will not help them to take it to Ashdod.”

The voyage of the Irene is organized by the London-based Jews for Justice for Palestinians.

Prominent British supporters listed on its website include humorist and actor Stephen Fry and Marion Kozak, the mother of newly-elected Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and of former foreign minister David Miliband.

On board the Irene are 82-year-old Holocaust survivor Reuven Moskovitz and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli whose daughter Smadar was killed in a 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem.

With them are a German nurse, British and U.S. peace activists, Shapira's brother and a reporter for Israel's Channel 10 television.

The Israeli military confirmed the navy had boarded the British-flagged boat saying there had been no violence on the part of the troops or the passengers.

Describing the boat's attempt to reach Gaza as a “provocation”, the statement said the captain had ignored repeated warnings by the navy and had entered a closed naval zone, prompting the interception.

In the past, Israel has said it would deliver any humanitarian cargo to Gaza overland after towing such boats to Ashdod.

On May 31, Israel’s navy and air force attacked the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla in international waters, killing nine Turkish activists and wounding dozens of others. Israeli warships encircled the aid ships, 150 kilometers outside of its territorial waters, and Israeli gunship helicopters dropped commandos onto the ships, who then began shooting the people on board without giving any prior warning.

The flotilla of six small and medium-sized boats was on its way to deliver and distribute food items, medicines, electric generators, building materials, and children’s toys to the Gaza Strip, which has been under a relentless Israeli blockade since the Islamic resistance movement Hamas took control of the coastal territory in June 2007.

Photo: The 30-foot catamaran, Irene, was escorted by Israeli naval vessels into the harbor of Ashdod on Tuesday after being blocked from entering the Gaza Strip. (Jim Hollander/European Pressphoto Agency)