New aid ship heading toward Gaza blockade
Source: Agencies |
June 5, 2010, Saturday
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ISRAEL vowed yesterday to keep an Irish aid ship from breaching its blockade of the Gaza Strip, setting the stage for another maritime showdown as the vessel made its way toward the Palestinian territory.
Concern about more violence loomed large as Israel stood fast by its blockade, despite rising pressure to lift it following Monday's raid against another aid ship that left nine activists dead.
Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan, who was on the ship with other activists, said they were determined to press on but would offer no resistance if Israeli forces came aboard.
"We will sit down," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the ship. "They will probably arrest us ... But there will be no resistance."
The Free Gaza Movement said on its Website that the ship, the 1,200-ton Rachel Corrie, would reach Gaza by this morning.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Thursday night that the boat would not reach the territory. Yesterday, Israel's foreign ministry said the policy had not changed.
"There is a maritime blockade on Gaza," ministry director Yossi Gal told reporters in Jerusalem.
The new effort to break the blockade will test Israel's resolve as it faces a wave of international outrage following Monday's botched raid, in which Israeli commandos clashed with activists after rappelling onto a ship from helicopters.
Eight Turks and an American of Turkish descent were killed and hundreds of others on the ship were arrested and later deported.
The fallout has increased pressure to end the embargo that has plunged Gaza's 1.5 million residents deeper into poverty and sharply raised Middle East tensions at a time the US is making a new push for regional peace.
Israel has urged the activists to bring the ship to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod and promised to transfer all cargo save any weapons or weapons components. The activists rejected the Israeli offer.
Netanyahu has instructed the Israeli military to avoid harming the passengers on board the Rachel Corrie, a participant at Thursday night's Cabinet meeting said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.
In Washington, the State Department said US officials had been in touch with "multiple" countries, including the Israeli and Irish governments, about the latest effort.
"Everyone wants to avoid a repetition of this tragic incident," spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
International condemnation continued yesterday, with protests in Syria, Greece, Bahrain and Malaysia, where some demonstrators burned Israeli flags and carried mock coffins.
The standoff has particularly strained Israel's relationship with once-close ally Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan kept up the tough rhetoric yesterday, telling a crowd that "nobody should test Turkey's patience."
Concern about more violence loomed large as Israel stood fast by its blockade, despite rising pressure to lift it following Monday's raid against another aid ship that left nine activists dead.
Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan, who was on the ship with other activists, said they were determined to press on but would offer no resistance if Israeli forces came aboard.
"We will sit down," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the ship. "They will probably arrest us ... But there will be no resistance."
The Free Gaza Movement said on its Website that the ship, the 1,200-ton Rachel Corrie, would reach Gaza by this morning.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Thursday night that the boat would not reach the territory. Yesterday, Israel's foreign ministry said the policy had not changed.
"There is a maritime blockade on Gaza," ministry director Yossi Gal told reporters in Jerusalem.
The new effort to break the blockade will test Israel's resolve as it faces a wave of international outrage following Monday's botched raid, in which Israeli commandos clashed with activists after rappelling onto a ship from helicopters.
Eight Turks and an American of Turkish descent were killed and hundreds of others on the ship were arrested and later deported.
The fallout has increased pressure to end the embargo that has plunged Gaza's 1.5 million residents deeper into poverty and sharply raised Middle East tensions at a time the US is making a new push for regional peace.
Israel has urged the activists to bring the ship to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod and promised to transfer all cargo save any weapons or weapons components. The activists rejected the Israeli offer.
Netanyahu has instructed the Israeli military to avoid harming the passengers on board the Rachel Corrie, a participant at Thursday night's Cabinet meeting said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.
In Washington, the State Department said US officials had been in touch with "multiple" countries, including the Israeli and Irish governments, about the latest effort.
"Everyone wants to avoid a repetition of this tragic incident," spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
International condemnation continued yesterday, with protests in Syria, Greece, Bahrain and Malaysia, where some demonstrators burned Israeli flags and carried mock coffins.
The standoff has particularly strained Israel's relationship with once-close ally Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan kept up the tough rhetoric yesterday, telling a crowd that "nobody should test Turkey's patience."
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