Israeli warships to Free Gaza boat: "You will not be allowed to proceed to Gaza"

The Free Gaza expedition that left Cyprus by sea Monday morning must now be near Gaza’s maritime space, which has been under a formal Israeli naval blockade since the start of its ground offensive in Gaza on 3-4 January.

Or maybe not — can the careful wording of some of the Israeli communications suggest that the formal naval blockade might have ended when Israel put its own unilateral cease-fire into effect on 18 January???

For the past 8 hours, the one Free Gaza boat now at sea has been travelling with intermittent contact with accompanying Israeli naval warships.

This Free Gaza boat, The Spirit of Humanity, is sailing under a Greek flag.

A journalist and cameraman from Al-Jazeera television are onboard, according to the group’s
latest passenger list, published yesterday.

The Free Gaza movement had been warned by multiple sources not to try to undertake this expedition, but they felt they had to stand up to what they called Israeli “intimidation”. When the Free Gaza movement began its expeditions from Cyprus to Gaza by sea last August, they declared their intention to break the siege of Gaza.

At that time, the Israeli government let them pass, saying they did not want to give the Free Gaza movement a propaganda victory.

In an email message this morning, Free Gaza supporters said “We’re a little concerned that the Israelis may be following the same protocol they did when they boarded the Lebanese ship back in February & arrested everyone. If they are following the same protocol, then we could expect an attack as early as 10-11am our time, 8-9am GMT. UPDATES: here.

Here are the latest updates, via Twitter:

23 MINUTES AGO
Spirit is about 60 miles off Gaza, just received a HELP message

27 MINUTES AGO
ALL WE WANT IS TO REACH GAZA. WE DO NOT SEEK A CONFRONTATION, Surrounded by 5 Israeli warships. Told to turn back. Still going forward

2 hours ago
Keep the pressure up. Someone turned the GPS and SPOT back on [navigation equipment restored]. We hear every ten minutes. Passengers/crew are fine. Soon to turn to Gaza

4 hours ago
“You will not be allowed to proceed to Gaza, and the boat that should return to Larnaca.” Message from Israeli gunboats. Spirit continues.

7 hours ago
Passengers are fine, but everything is jammed. Heading west to avoid Israeli waters and remain in International waters