As the Irene approached the declared limits of the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza’s maritime space, which extends 20 miles from the shoreline straight out to sea in the eastern Mediterranean, an Israeli warship approached. Within a half hour, the Israeli Navy was reportedly escorting the small ship.
At 10h42 this morning, the Jerusalem Post reported: “The army established contact with the captain, and asked him where we are headed,” Rami Elhanan said. “The navy asked to bypass the ship from 5 miles to the right, and we complied. We said we are headed to Gaza and sailing under the British flag”” Elhanan added. Elhanan also reported that the captain was not told that the boat will be stopped. “I have no idea when, if at all, we will be intercepted,” he said. This is posted here.
UPDATE: Elhanan told YNet (see below) that “We are surrounded by at least 10 Navy ships. They are probably going to collide with us any minute. They are demanding that we stop and threatening that if we fail to do so, it may end with casualties. We are moving forward in full force, hugging each other and singing songs”…
Israeli authorities have said they intend to stick to their policy of bringing the boat to Israel’s southern port of Ashdod for “the usual”.
There are reportedly 10 activists, some of them Israeli, and a symbolic amount of cargo destined for Gaza, on board the 33-foot British-flagged catamaran.
Another option, presumably before the point of interception, would have been to say that they were going to the Egyptian port of El-Arish.
But, the Jewish Boat to Gaza wants to go … to Gaza.
The Jerusalem Post reported shortly after 10 a.m. that the Captain, Glynn Secker, “says his boat is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Gaza and that expects the navy to intercept the Irene within the next hours. The Israeli military said Tuesday it would not intervene until the boat tries to breach the blockade”.
YNet has reported that “The IDF announced it would notify the captain that he will not be allowed to proceed to Gaza, and that troops would raid the small boat only if it tried to breach the blockade”. The ship’s Captain, Glynn Secker, said: “We will not obey them, we will not help them … But we will not confront them physically. We will engage in no violence”.
According to the YNet report, here, the ship would have docked in Gaza withing three hours.
Itamar Shapira told YNet “The IDF has not spoken to us yet, but we have understood that it declared it would stop us 40 kilometers from the shore“…
Reuven Moskowitz, the 82-year-old Holocaust survivor who is one of the founders of Neve Shalom, an Israeli Jewish + Arab coexistence enterprise, told YNet that “We are an extraordinary people. We are only sorry that they plan to stop us and remind everyone that a true hero is one who tries to turn an enemy into a friend … In any case we refuse to recognize the IDF’s right to arrest us in Gaza’s territorial waters when all we want to do is bring them harmonicas, toys, and some medicine” …
so called “Jewish activists” are just a gang of profoundly ignorant idiots, islamofascist prostitutes, traitors, who did this PR to get international attention and money.
You probably have little or no idea how much contempt I have, and how I abhorr, the word “Islamofascist”. It’s right up there with “terrorist”. I’m only permitting this comment for illustrative purposes, to show people how ugly and stupid and profoundly offensive this argumentation is…