Jewish pro-Palestine activists electrocuted on boat mission to break Gaza siege

No one killed onboard the Irene, a 10-metre catamaran involved in the symbolic gesture to bring in small quantities of medicine and other vital supplies, but treatment was brutal by all accounts, including being electrocuted with tasers. The mission follows hard on the heels of the Mavi Marmara which saw nine activists killed in cold blood by the IDF. A fifth Viva Palestina land convoy is currently in Turkey en route to Gaza in addition to more aid boats.

Five Israeli activists who attempted to break their country's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip in a boat have been released from police custody, though five others who had been on board the ship are set to be deported.

Yonatan Shapira, a former pilot in the Israeli air force, said after being released on Tuesday that Israeli marines who boarded the yacht Irene were "very brutal".

"They didn't kill us like they killed other Palestinians and Muslims, but they were very brutal. I got shot with a taser shock gun ... and was brutally treated just like my brother Itamar," Shapira, a member of the Combatants for Peace group, told the Reuters news agency.

The Irene was carrying eight Jewish activists - including 82-year-old Holocaust survivor Reuven Moskovitz and captain Glyn Secker - as well as two British journalists. Of the eight, five were Israeli citizens and three were citizens of the US, UK and Germany.

Another passenger was Rami Elhanan, an Israeli whose daughter died in a 1997 suicide bombing at a Jerusalem shopping centre.

Eli Osherov, a reporter from Channel 10 in Israel, was also on board. more

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