The Israeli navy intercepted a ship delivering 60 tons of supplies to the Gaza Strip from Lebanon on Thursday in the latest bid to defy Israel's blockade Gaza.
The Israelis fired at the ship before boarding it and beating those on board, said reporters from Arab TV stations Al-Jadeed and Al-Jazeera who were on the vessel.Gunfire could be heard in the background of the telephoned reports aired by their stations.
The navy towed the ship, which set sail Tuesday from Lebanon, to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod where it could be seen moored at the quayside.
Lebanon's prime minister condemned the "blatant attack" and one of the organizers of the voyage called it a kidnapping.
The Israeli military said those on board the ship, the Tali, would be handed over to Israeli immigration authorities.
Israel has kept Gaza's cargo crossings largely closed since June 2007.
Disagreements over opening the Gaza blockade led Hamas negotiators to leave talks in Egypt on Thursday on a long-term cease-fire with Israel.
The organizers of the aid ship, Lebanese leftist political and human rights activists, said 18 people were on board and that the cargo included medicine, food, toys and basic humanitarian supplies such as mattresses and blankets.
Among the passengers was 86-year-old Greek Catholic priest Hillarion Capucci who was serving as an archbishop in Jerusalem in 1974 when Israel detained him and was later released from jail at the intervention of the Vatican and deported.
The Free Gaza Movement, which did not organize the Lebanese voyage but has successfully sent several boatloads of activists to Gaza in the past said one of its British volunteers, Theresa McDermott of Edinburgh, was also on board.
Israel says the blockade of Gaza is a response to Resistance and says that it is necessary to break the will of the Palestinian people and get rid of Hamas who was elected to represent Palestine.
Hamas officials had said they are ready to commit to a cease-fire with Israel for at least a year in exchange for a full opening of Gaza's borders.
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