Israel deploys navy to stop Gaza aid ships
From: AAP July 23, 2010 11:33AM
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/israel-deploys-navy-to-stop-gaza-aid-ships/story-e6frf7jx-1225896027943
ISRAEL deployed its navy yesterday as two ships from Lebanon prepared to set sail for the blockaded Gaza Strip.
Israeli defense officials said ships were deployed to stop the vessels and that commandos from the navy’s Flotilla 13, known as the Shayetet, were put on standby.
The two Lebanese vessels were expected to depart either today or tomorrow in an attempt to break the Gaza blockade by the end of the week.
One of the ships is reportedly carrying women and the other is carrying journalists.
“They want to purposely create a provocation,” one Israeli defense official said. “These are also relatively fast ships which means that once they leave, they will be near Gaza fairly quickly.”
On Thursday Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said the ships would not be allowed to reach their destination in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and current president of the Security Council, Nigerian Ambassador Joy Ogwu.
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“Israel reserves its right under international law to use all necessary means to prevent these ships from violating the aforementioned naval blockade,” Shalev wrote.
“Furthermore, it cannot be ruled out that these vessels carry weapons or individuals with provocative and confrontational intentions,” she added.
U.N. officials have urged countries not to attempt to break the Israeli naval blockade and urged all parties to show restraint.
The news comes after a Libyan ship, initially bent on breaking Israel’s Gaza blockade, docked in Egypt earlier this month after agreeing to deliver its cargo of aid through Egyptian territory.
Eight Israeli warships shadowed the freighter through the day, four on either side, to prevent it from heading to the Gaza coast, Agence France-Presse reported.
Israel agreed to ease its four-year-old land blockade of Gaza following an outcry over its deadly commando operation May 31 on a six-ship flotilla, which killed nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists.
Israel says it now blocks only weapons and other goods which could be of military use to the Islamist Hamas movement which controls the Palestinian territory.
