The all-women solidarity ship called “Zaytouna” has reportedly been intercepted and attacked by Israeli naval forces, according to live updates released by the group on social media. As the solidarity ship, whose name means "olives" in Arabic, reached less than 70 nautical miles from the shores of Gaza, inside Israel’s unilaterally declared buffer zone -- or “military exclusion zone”-- the Freedom Flotilla coalition released a statement calling on “governments, public officials and people of conscience to support publicly the right of unimpeded passage for peaceful civilian navigation, and the physical integrity of the crew and participants on board, and to support full freedom of movement for all peoples, in particular the Palestinians of Gaza.” Shortly after, activists lost contact with the ship, leading them to believe the ship was intercepted by Israeli naval forces. However, they regained contact with the ship about an hour later. Some 20 minutes after regaining conta...

Contrary to Israeli claims that the Marianne was taken peacefully, this video shows that armed commandos used brutal violence against unarmed passengers aboard the Gaza-bound boat early on Monday. According to the organizers of the flotilla, 14 of the 18 civilian passengers and crew remain in Israeli custody more than two days after they were violently abducted in international waters to prevent them breaking the Israeli-imposed siege on Gaza. Palestinian citizen of Israel and member of the Israeli parliament Basel Ghattas, former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki, Spanish European Parliament member Ana Miranda and Israeli journalist Ohad Hemo have been released. The other passengers remain in detention at Givon prison in present-day Israel. more

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel deported Tunisian ex-president Moncef Marzouki and European parliament member Ana Miranda on Monday after they took part in a flotilla seeking to defy its Gaza blockade, an official said. "The (former) president of Tunisia and the Spanish lawmaker flew this morning. There are another 14 who have begun the expulsion process," a spokeswoman for Israel's immigration authority told AFP. Marzouki, who is widely known as a human rights activist, sailed aboard the Swedish ship the Marianne of Gothenburg as part of a four-boat flotilla that set sail from Europe last month. Israel commandeered the Swedish-flagged Marianne on Monday and accompanied it to the port of Ashdod. Sixteen foreign nationals were on board along with two Israeli citizens, Palestinian Knesset member Basel Ghattas and a television reporter. The two Israelis have been released, though Ghattas could face a parliamentary hearing on whether he should face sanctions. The four-boat fl...

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel's navy boarded and took over an activist vessel seeking to break its Gaza blockade and was escorting it to port on Monday in an operation that did not use force, the military said. A flotilla of four boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists had been seeking to reach Gaza to highlight the Israeli blockade of the territory, with the attempt coming five years after a similar bid ended in a deadly raid. Three of the boats were said to have turned back while a fourth, the Marianne of Gothenburg, was boarded by the Israeli navy and was being escorted to an Israeli port. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded the operation insisting his government was right to take action against Hamas, the group that rules Gaza. "In accordance with international law, the Israeli navy advised the vessel several times to change course," the military said in a statement. "Following their refusal the navy visited and searched the vessel in international...

From RT blog - Richard Sudan, is a London based writer, political activist, and performance poet. Follow him on Twitter I never heard the word Palestine when I was in school. I can't speak for all of my former classmates, nor can I speak for all of my teachers. But as I first began to write about the Palestinian cause a few years back, and began to understand what was happening, I became increasingly frustrated when newspapers would ask me to be ‘balanced’. On one level I get it. I understand that if a person is talking about a political event, a dispute, or a war, or something clear cut, both sides of the story must be told. The so-called Israel/Palestine question however, is not a conflict. The Palestinians are defenseless and are constantly attacked by a state which has the unconditional support of the US. The word conflict evokes images of two even sides pitted against one another. Israel/Palestine is not a conflict, nor is it close to war. It's not even David and Golia...

More than three boats, with more than 50 crew and passengers from about twenty countries are prepared to reach the port of Gaza and call on the international community to open it This year’s mission, organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition against the blockade and the siege of Gaza, is about to sail to highlight the violation of the rights of 1.8 million Palestinians living in the world’s largest open-air prison. The Israeli government claims that there are ‘unauthorized boats trying to illegally enter Israeli territorial waters’. There are no ‘unauthorized boats’, only an illegal and inhumane blockade; the UN has recently called to end it and Freedom Flotilla III sails to challenge it, without any need or desire to enter Israeli territorial waters. This fact is highlighted by the practices of Israeli naval forces against previous sea missions, which have intercepted all boats since 2009 in international waters, headed towards Palestinian waters off Gaza, never towards Israel o...

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- One of the ships taking part in a flotilla headed towards Gaza strip was sabotaged south of Crete, an activist aboard one of the ships said Thursday. Israeli-born Swedish activist Dror Feiler told Nazareth-based al-Shams radio that the ship had been sabotaged by professionals, and would have sunk if sailed at sea. "Somebody went underneath the ship at night and sabotaged its propellers, just like they sabotaged the same ship in 2011,” Fieler said referring to similar damage that was inflicted upon a ship participating in a previous flotilla. Feiler, who relinquished his Israeli citizenship after moving to Sweden, boarded the trawler Marianne of Gothenburg in Sweden with 18 other activists six weeks ago. The crew had refrained from stopping at European ports prior to avoid being held by authorities, but their trip was cut short after realizing that they might have drowned had they continued. Despite the sabotage, the remainder of the flotilla convoy wil...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Activists in Gaza City on Sunday marked five years since Israel's deadly attack on the first Freedom Flotilla in 2010, a day after the ship leading Freedom Flotilla III arrived in the port of Bueu in Spain en route to Gaza. Israeli naval forces killed nine activists On May 31, 2010 after they stormed six ships intending to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The incident took place in international waters and sparked international outcry. Sunday's commemoration ceremony was organized by Miles of Smiles, an international Gaza aid campaign, and was attended by dozens of activists. The participants held up photos of the victims of the first flotilla and chanted slogans demanding freedom for Gaza and Palestine. They then sailed a short distance off the coast and threw roses into the water in honor of the victims, also raising the flags of the countries participating in the current flotilla. In a press conference in Gaza port, a spokesperson for Miles ...

Marianne of Gothenburg left her home port at 7 pm on the 10 of May. The trawler, which has been acquired by Ship to Gaza Sweden and Ship to Gaza Norway jointly, departs for a voyage of almost 5,000 nautical miles to eastern Mediterranean and the blockaded Gaza Strip. Marianne will join other ships and together they will form the “Freedom Flotilla III” in order to perform a peaceful, nonviolent action to break the illegal and inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip. In passing Marianne will call at European ports for manifestations against the blockade. The First three ports will be Helsingborg, Malmö and Copenhagen. The subsequent ports will be announced in press releases. Cargo Marianne is not a cargo-ship, but she will bring a limited cargo of, among other things, solar cell panels and medical equipment. The solar cell panels are a gift from ETC-El. In the blockaded Gaza Strip, where the infrastructure has been demolished, solar cells will thus provide an opportunity to independen...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Three ships are prepared to embark to the Gaza Strip this summer in a humanitarian mission called "Freedom Flotilla III," the coordinator of the international coalition to break the siege on Gaza Berawi Zaher said in a statement Friday. He explained in a press statement that the departure time and launch locations of the fleet will not be released in effort to prevent Israeli authorities from exerting pressure on countries involved in the operation. Final logistical arrangements for the flotilla are to be made in Greece next month. The flotilla campaign is organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition in effort to bring relief to the 1.8 million Palestinians living under blockade in the Gaza Strip. The coastal enclave has been under severe economic and military blockade by Israel since 2006, the strip sealed on three sides by Israel and the south end of the strip facing frequent closure by Egypt. "The humanitarian situation in Gaza is more cr...

The Turkish humanitarian relief organisation (IHH) is currently organising a "Freedom Flotilla II" which will carry humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, IHH chairman Bulent Yildrim said Thursday. In statements to Gulf Online, Yildrim said that his organisation has embarked on legal procedures and paperwork required to obtain a permit for the trip. As soon as a final permit is issued, the IHH along with other international organisations will immediately set up the convoy. The chairman of IHH, a major organiser of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla I, said that Turkish army troops will accompany the ships to protect it from any potential attack, pointing out that his organisation demanded the government to provide protection for them as Turkish citizens. more

An old fishing trawler is being revamped by the "Freedom Flotilla Coalition" into "Gaza's Ark" - a cargo vessel to export Palestinian products from the port of Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade on Palestinian exports from Gaza. Duration: 00:44

Estelle, a ship voyaging to break the Gaza blockade has begun its journey from Sweden. This latest attempt to break the siege is organised by the Swedish based Ship to Gaza initiative which is being aided by a coalition called Freedom Flotilla III. Organisations aiding the Ship to Gaza-Sweden umbrella organisation include organisations in France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Canada, the United States, and Australia. Mikael Löfgren, the media coordinator for the initiative has said that there are organisations “from all over the world but the main coalition is with organisations along the way.” Estelle is now in Norway after arriving there on Friday. The ship is expected to reach Gaza “sometime within October” said Löfgren. Throughout its journey the ship will raise awareness of the Gaza blockade. Estelle will make several stops on its way to Gaza in which there will be “speakers, concerts and public festivals providing information about the situation in Gaza.” more

European activists are organizing a new flotilla in solidarity with residents of Gaza. Their boat is expected to leave the Baltic Sea in the coming weeks and pass through several harbors in the Mediterranean for events aimed at raising awareness, before reaching the sealed off Strip. Previous flotillas were intercepted by the Israeli Navy, which is expected to stop this trip too. Activists posted a clip on YouTube on Wednesday showing the Estelle, a ship they recently bought for the journey to the blockaded Gaza Strip. The ship is currently on its way to Oslo after going through maintenance work in Sweden, and it is due to leave for a two-to-three months’ long voyage to Gaza in the coming weeks to protest against the ongoing Israeli siege on the Strip. In the clip, former Israeli artist Dror Feiler declares that the activists’ goal is to pressure European states into making Israel end the siege, or at least to have them protest against it. “We will go through different harbors on the w...

Istanbul (CNN) -- Turkey's prime minister says the country will follow aid ships to Gaza in an effort to stop incidents like last year's raid by Israeli commandos that killed eight Turks and one Turkish-American. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Al Jazeera television network Thursday that "Turkish warships are primarily responsible to protect our ships that carry humanitarian aid to Gaza. From now on, we will not allow these ships to be subjected to attacks from Israel similar to what happened with the Freedom Flotilla. ... Israel will be answered appropriately." more

JERUSALEM - PRO-PALESTINEAN activists on board a French yacht neared the coast of Gaza on Tuesday as they headed for the Palestinian territory in a bid to break an Israeli naval blockade on the coastal strip. The boat set sail for Gaza after a night anchored at sea, despite Israeli warnings that it would intercept the vessel - the only boat remaining from a flotilla of 10 ships that had planned to breach Israel's blockade this summer. The Dignite/Al Karama set sail on Saturday from the Greek island of Kastellorizo following a troubled stay in Greece, after Athens imposed a ban on the departure of any ships involved in the flotilla. Reached by phone in Paris, a spokesman for the French vessel told AFP it was now moving slowly towards Gaza. 'The boat, which is moving slowly in a calm sea, should arrive in around five or six hours, which would be around midday, at the Gaza coast,' Julian Rivoire told AFP. more

Contact on Dignite: 00870 7764 16715 or 0046 707 229 165 dror.feiler@gmail.com or cleostic@free.fr French boat Dignité of the Freedom Flotilla II leaves Greece The French boat “Dignité/Karama” (Dignity) left the Greek island Kastellorizo around 8:30PM local time on Saturday July 16, 2011, heading south. The ten passengers onboard view themselves as representatives of the whole Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human. The rest of the Flotilla’s ships have been detained in different Greek ports, through bureaucratic obstruction, sabotage, sudden restrictions and withdrawals of flags. The Dignité, sailing under a French flag, left Corsica on June 25th, and has, over the past weeks, been in Greek waters. It has now left– so far without being followed by the Greek coast guard or Navy. Among the delegates on board is Jacqueline Le Corre, member of the French Communist Party, Jean Claude Lefort, former French Member of the European Parliament, as well as representatives of the Canadian, French, Gr...

From Gulf News Dubai/Cairo: The organisers of the Gaza aid flotilla are not ruling out the possibility of the fleet sailing from Egyptian ports should their efforts to sail from Greece fail to materialise. Pro-Palestinian activists in Egypt have taken up the flotilla's cause, inviting organisers to launch the fleet from Egypt after Greece made it clear that it would not allow the Freedom Flotilla 2 to launch from its ports. However, Hani Sadeq, a professor of political science at the Suez Canal University, said that Egypt's military rulers were unlikely to allow the flotilla to sail from the country. "It is unlikely that they will agree to allow the sailing of the flotilla [from Egypt's ports] lest tensions with Israel... escalate. Instability inside Egypt would not encourage them to run the risk of opening another front of turmoil with Israel," Sadeq said. The Egyptian government, he said, was more likely to evade public pressure by permanently opening the Rafah ...

ATHENS, Jul 12, 2011 ( IPS ) - The French vessel Dignité-Al Karama is the only boat from the Freedom Flotilla II actually sailing for Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade imposed in 2006. At the same time, six Spanish members of the humanitarian aid mission went on hunger strike in the Greek capital. The hunger strikers, who have occupied the Spanish embassy in Athens since Jul. 5, were travelling on the Spanish ship Gernika (Guernica) that was part of the flotilla carrying 500 activists from 45 different countries, and 5,000 tonnes of aid, bound for the Gaza Strip. Nearly all the ships have been confined to port in Greece for the last 10 days, except for the Dignité-Al Karama which sailed from the French island of Corsica Jun. 25, evaded the Greek blockade on more than one occasion and remains the only vessel of the flotilla still sailing freely. With 10 representatives of several delegations of the humanitarian coalition on board, the Dignité received permission Jul. 9 to...

An aid ship headed for Gaza has left the Greek island of Crete. The Dignité has 10 activists on board and is part of the 10-boat Freedom Flotilla that has tried to leave Greek waters for Gaza over the past week. Coast Guards say the Dignite's papers are all in order and the destination is the island of Rhodes. But the activists on board have different ideas.