Israeli navy intercepts vessel trying to breach blockade of Gaza

Israeli forces boarded a boat leading a protest flotilla of foreign activists to the blockaded Palestinian enclave of Gaza on Monday and forced it to sail to an Israeli port, the Israeli military said. Activists said the boat also carried a group of journalists and politicians, among them former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki and a European Parliament lawmaker for Spain. The flotilla was the latest in a series of such voyages across the Mediterranean in protest against Israel’s nine-year blockade of Islamist Hamas-dominated Gaza.

After exhausting all diplomatic channels the Israeli government ordered the Israeli Navy to redirect the vessel in order to prevent breach of the naval blockade.

Israeli statement

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, a Palestinian woman stabbed a female Israeli paramilitary police officer in the neck and seriously injured her, police said. And in the evening three Israelis were injured when shots were fired at them from a car in the West Bank, the Israeli military said. A Palestinian held by Israel for the past year is ending a 55-day hunger strike and in exchange will be released in two weeks, his wife and an advocacy group for prisoners said Monday.  At the end of April, Israel held about 5,500 Palestinian security prisoners, including 396 in administrative detention, according to B'Tselem, which publishes official figures. After a drop in 2012, following the mass hunger strike, the number has been rising again over the past year to monthly levels ranging from 363 to 473 administrative detainees.

Middle East Israel