Israel peacefully stops ship from entering Gaza

Navy commandos peacefully commandeered a catamaran sailed by an international group of Jewish activists.

Israeli navy commandos peacefully commandeered a catamaran sailed by an international group of Jewish activists on Tuesday trying to break Israels blockade on Gaza.

The 10 activists,from Israel,the US,Britain and Germany,among them an Israeli 82-year-old Holocaust survivor,responded defiantly to the Israeli navy when it hailed to them from a frigate demanding they identify themselves and give their destination.

We are going to Gaza, the group responded from the deck of the 30-foot Irene,festooned with peace flags and carrying humanitarian aid,according to a Twitter update posted on its website.

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The Israeli military said in a statement that the vessel was boarded without incident and that no violence of any kind was used by neither the passengers onboard nor the Israel naval forces.

The military nicknamed the boat,the Provocation Yacht.

The boats voyage from Cyprus was another attempt to thwart the blockade after an Israeli assault on a Turkish Gaza-bound aid boat on May 31 in which Israeli commando forces opened fire,killing nine Turkish Islamic activists on board and setting off an international dispute.

The Jewish activists,whose cellphones were confiscated when the boat was seized,according to an Israel-based spokesman for the group,were being taken by the navy to Ashdod. The groups goal had been to try to reach Gaza and unload aid cargo in what the group said was a non-violent,symbolic act of solidarity and protest.