Sunday, June 06, 2010

Israel remains defiant, seizes Gaza-bound aid ship

"Israel remains defiant, seizes Gaza-bound aid ship

By KARIN LAUB (AP) – 11 hours ago

JERUSALEM — A defiant Israel enforced its 3-year-old blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza on Saturday, with naval commandos swiftly commandeering a Gaza-bound aid vessel carrying an Irish Nobel laureate and other activists and forcing it to head to an Israeli port instead.

The bloodless takeover stood in marked contrast to a deadly raid of another Gaza aid ship this week. However, it was unlikely to halt snowballing international outrage and demands that Israel lift or at least loosen the devastating closure that confines 1.5 million Palestinians to a small sliver of land and only allows in basic humanitarian goods."

More:The Associated Press: Israel remains defiant, seizes Gaza-bound aid ship