A ship with Swedish flag ferrying important and crucial aid heading towards the besieged Gaza Strip was seized by Israeli naval forces.
The vessel called the ‘Freedom for Gaza’ had 12 people and crucial medical equipment onboard and was intercepted by the Israeli port of Ashdod late on Friday, according to an statement from Israeli military.
The ship was actually a part of a four-vessel Freedom Flotilla Coalition that left from Denmark in May with the aim of breaking the crushing 12-year Gaza blockade imposed by barbaric Israel and neighbouring Egypt.
Its last reported location before losing contact with the flotilla was at least 40 nautical miles from Gaza’s coastline, the group said in a statement on Saturday.
“We demand that the Israeli occupation forces not interfere with our unarmed yacht as we continue our voyage to Gaza to deliver our gift of much-needed medical supplies,” Dror Feiler, a spokesman for the coalition, said.
Two million people living in Gaza Strip lack access to electricity, food, healthcare and other basic services, as per the report fromo UN, with conditions in the enclave set to become completely “unliveable” by the year 2020.
The Israeli army stated that the vessel was kept under surveillance and intercepted in accordance with international law. Those on board were taken into custody for “further inquiry”.
It was the second such flotilla vessel seized by Israeli authorities in a week, after naval forces of the country held a Norwegian-flagged boat carrying at least 23 people on Sunday.
The interceptions come after a number of failed attempts by many activists to reach Gaza’s coastline in recent years.
In the year 2015, a flotilla of a total four boats bound for Gaza was forcibly redirected to Ashdod.
In the year 2010, a brave attempt to reach the enclave by the Turkish Mavi Marmara flotilla proved fatal when Israeli commandos stormed the ship, killing all of the nine Turkish nationals.
In the month of May this year, a flotilla carrying not less than 25 patients, students and activists broke Israel’s imposed boundary off the coast of the Gaza Strip for the first time in more than a decade.
Israel does not allow ships from travelling more than six nautical miles from Gaza’s coastline.
The vessel, however, was able to travel nine nautical miles offshore before four Israeli warships flanked it and diverted it to Ashdod.
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