"On Sunday, Israeli forces seized a boat carrying nearly two dozen activists and journalists aiming to break Israel's maritime blockade on Gaza. Flotilla organizers discounted Israel's claims that its forces had intercepted and 'redirected' their vessel to Israel 'without incident.' 'According to first-hand evidence that we have been given, the Israeli occupation forces violently attacked our Norwegian-flagged boat Al Auda (Return) as she was in international waters,' the Freedom Coalition said Tuesday. 'Prior to all of our electronic communications being cut to and from our boat, at least 4 warships had appeared,' the organizers added. 'Following some unlawful radio directives to our captain and our insistence that we had a right of innocent passage in international waters, armed, masked soldiers boarded Al Awda without permission.' Israeli soldiers beat passengers and used tasers against them, organisers said. One of the passengers assaulted was Dr Swee Chai Ang, a founder of the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. Dr Ang was a witness to the 1982 massacres of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut during the Israeli occupation of Lebanon.* According to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, two Israeli passengers and two Al Jazeera journalists aboard the boat were released by Israeli authorities. But by Tuesday, 18 others had spent a second night 'unlawfully detained in Givon Prison'." (Israel abducts flotilla boat, Ali Abunimah, electronicintifada.net, 31/7/18)
[*Click on the label below to read about this amazing woman.]
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