Seizing humanitarian aid ships to Gaza piracy of state: organization
The Palestinians on Friday condemned the Israeli navy of seizing two Irish and Canadian humanitarian aid ships sailing to the Gaza Strip, which had been under Israeli blockade for five years.
The Gaza-based Palestinian non-government organizations (PNGO) said in a press statement emailed to reporters that seizing the two ships "is a piracy of a state and part of the Israeli occupation crimes against our people."
The international committee to defy the Israeli blockade announced on Thursday that two Irish and Canadian vessels, carrying humanitarian aids and international activists decided to sail to the Gaza Strip to defy the blockade.
Just 45 miles before reaching the Gaza Strip seaport, the Israeli naval forces stopped the two ships, and forced them to sail to the Israeli harbor of Ashdod to search the two ships and questions the activists.
"PNGO expresses its deep concerns over the safety of 27 international activists holding different nationalities, including a student from Haifa," said the statement.
Israel had been imposing a blockade on the Gaza Strip since June 2006 after Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped, and it was tightened after Islamic Hamas movement seized control of the coastal enclave in June 2007.
However, it relaxed the blockade after the Israeli naval forces attacked on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on May 31 last year, during which nine Turkish activists were killed and dozens wounded.
After Shalit was released last month for the release of 477 male and female prisoners, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were hoping that Israel would end the sea and ground blockade which had weaken the enclave's economy.
Editor: yan
English.news.cn 2011-11-05 01:04:35 FeedbackPrintRSS
GAZA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua)
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