A boat that was carrying international peace activists and medical supplies to Gaza sailed into a Lebanese port on Tuesday after being turned back by the Israeli navy, organizers of the trip said.
International activists cover boxes of medical supplies to protect them from the rain aboard a boat before setting sail for Gaza from the Cypriot port of Larnaca, Monday.
Photo: AP
The crowds on the docks in the Lebanese port city of Tyre were jubilant and cheering as they welcomed the vessel.
The boat, which set off from Cyprus Monday wanted to make a statement and deliver medical supplies to Gaza. The trip's organizers said the boat was clearly in international waters, 90 miles off the coast of Gaza, at the time of its close encounter with the Israeli navy.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the boat ignored an Israeli radio order to turn back early Tuesday.
Palmor says the boat tried to outmaneuver an Israeli navy ship and crashed into it, which lightly damaged both vessels. The navy then escorted the boat out into the territorial waters of Cyprus.
But protest boat organizer Derek Graham, from the group Free Gaza, said the Israeli ship "rammed" the protest boat, called SS Dignity.
Graham had said the vessel would "limp" toward southern Lebanon because of engine trouble.
A Free Gaza spokeswoman, Lubna Masarwa, had said the boat was heading to Lebanon despite Israeli navy orders it sail to Cyprus, because of a lack of fuel. Masarwa added the boat was "in bad shape" due to damage sustained in the collision and was taking on small amounts of water.
She added that organizers would see how and when the boat would proceed to the Cypriot port of Larnaca once it reached Lebanon.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman ordered Tuesday that the boat be "rescued" and welcomed back in Lebanon.
Cyprus Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou told public radio that his country would lodge a formal protest over Israel's alleged ramming of the Free Gaza boat.
He said that although the boat is neither Cypriot-owned nor Cypriot-registered, the fact that it left Cyprus and has Cypriot nationals aboard accords the Cyprus government "the right to be informed and to protest."
Kyprianou said he has instructed the Cyprus embassy in Israel to lodge the protest.
The 66-foot yacht Dignity, flying the flag of Gibraltar, left Larnaca Monday with almost 4 tons of Cypriot-donated supplies and 16 passengers, including former US Representative Cynthia McKinney, Cypriot lawmaker Eleni Theocharous and activists from Britain, Australia, Ireland and Tunisia, organizers said.
Theocharous, who is also a surgeon, said supplies include urgently-needed surgical equipment and antibiotics.
The Free Gaza group has made five deliveries of aid by boat to Gaza since August, defying a blockade which was imposed by Israel due to Hamas rocket attacks.
