Video: New Straits Times exclusive - video proves breach of illegal blockade of Gaza

KUALA LUMPUR: Even after two months, I can still remember the rush I felt from hearing the sounds of gunshots fired by an Israeli navy ship over the Malaysian humanitarian ship MV Finch on May 16.

I recall vividly the day before the incident when I could barely sleep.

Emotions aside, the spectre of being arrested by the Israelis was real.

On that fateful day at 3am, I joined the other non-essential members of the mission sitting on the open deck of MV Finch as it made its way to Palestinian waters from the El Arish Port waiting area in Egyptian waters.

There, I joined reporters Mohd Faizal Hassan from Bernama and Canadian Julie Lévesque from Global Research, Mohd Radzillah Abdullah from the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Department and Irish humanitarian activist Jenny Graham.

It was a cold night with a visible full moon.

We waited for what seemed to be long hours on a wetmattress laid out on the deck before dawn broke.

This was when we began to see fishing boats with fishermen waving at us. We even passed undetected a stationary Egyptian navy ship.

Then at 6am, the danger began when two Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) ships appeared fleetingly and one of the ships rushed out to intercept us.

At that time, our ship had already entered Palestinian waters, right inside “Security Area L” imposed by Israel to prevent ships from sailing in and out of Gaza port.

MV Finch had sailed almost one mile inside the “security zone” and was approximately 0.5 nautical miles (900m) from the shore, when the IDF spotted our presence and challenged our right to sail to Gaza.

All five of us on deck were watching the approaching IDF ship from the side when suddenly, we heard gunshots from the Israeli ship’s machine gun. Immediately we hit the deck and huddled on the mattress.

My immediate reaction was to promptly delete several important SMS messages in my mobile phone in case the Israelis boarded our ship and arrested us.

But as shots were being fired by the circling IDF boat, my journalistic instincts kicked in.

I decided to record the attack since the TV3 crew from Malaysia were not allowed to join us. more

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