- Title: ISRAEL-GAZA/FLOTILLA PM Netanyahu condemns seized Gaza-bound flotilla
- Date: 29th June 2015
- Summary: ASHDOD, ISRAEL (JUNE 29, 2015) (REUTERS) VIEW OF ASHDOD PORT VARIOUS OF NAVAL BOATS AND SHIPS AT SEA TOP SHOT OF ASHDOD PORT CARS BEING DRIVEN INSIDE PORT'S COMPOUND TOP VIEW OF PORT JERUSALEM (JUNE 29, 2015) (REUTERS) PARLIAMENT FOREIGN AND DEFENCE COMMITTEE CONVENE ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SEATED AT MEETING OPPOSITION LEADERS TZIPI LIVNI (RIGHT) AND AVIG
- Embargoed: 14th July 2015 13:00
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- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVACN93Z9ZHLF87G3YEM4ZFSK2RU
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the army on Monday (June 29) for blocking a boat leading a four-vessel protest flotilla of foreign activists from reaching the Gaza Strip and forced the vessel to sail to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
"The (pro-Gaza activists onboard the flotilla) chose to come and protest at the State of Israel, the only real democratic state in the Middle East who fight against terrorists who deliberately fire at Israeli citizens and deliberately hide behind Palestinian civilians. therefore this flotilla is infected with hypocrisy and I am glad to the say that this (flotilla) generates less public and propaganda impact because people around the world begin to understand the lie it holds," Netanyahu said at the start of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee in Jerusalem.
An Israeli military statement said there was no violence in the incident, in which troops boarded, searched and then forced the boat to sail to an Israeli port.
Early on Monday the southern Israeli port appeared calm as naval vessels awaited the arrival of the seized boat.
Activists said the boat had a few dozen Europeans, including politicians, on board and had been headed for Gaza, the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The Israeli statement early on Monday said that "after exhausting all diplomatic channels the Israeli government ordered the Israeli Navy to redirect the vessel in order to prevent breach of the naval blockade" of Gaza.
It said troops searched the vessel in international waters and then escorted it to Israel's southern port of Ashdod.
The four-vessel flotilla was the latest in a series of protest voyages across the Mediterranean against Israel's nine-year blockade of Islamist Hamas-dominated Gaza, a Palestinian territory.
One of those incidents turned deadly in 2010 when 10 Turkish activists were killed aboard a ship commandeered by Israel in the Mediterranean Sea.
An earlier statement by the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement said the flotilla had been led by a converted fishing trawler called the 'Marianne of Gothenburg', with about 50 activists from 17 countries, including an Israeli Arab lawmaker.
The activists said the boats had set sail on June 27 with a cargo of solar panels intended to "help alleviate the serious problem of electricity in Gaza, as well as medical equipment" for the impoverished territory, home to 1.7 million Palestinians. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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