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Photos:
Palestinians show their solidarity with a Gaza-bound flotilla of international activists attempting to break the Israeli blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, on October 5, 2016 at the Gaza port.AFP / Mohammed Abbed Published by Haaretz

Israeli naval forces storm the Zaytouna boat from the Freedom Flotilla on Oct. 05, 2016. (Photo: International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza) Published by Maan News
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Troops encounter no resistance, reroute boat to port city Ashdod. Among the boat's 13 passengers are several parliamentarians, an Olympic athlete, a retired U.S. army colonel and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

by Gili Cohen , Jack Khoury and Judy Maltz for Haaretz

The Israeli navy intercepted a flotilla aiming to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, about 35 nautical miles from the Israeli coast.  
According to a high-ranking officer, passengers on board the Zaytouna-Olivia offered no resistance when the troops took over the boat. The boat was redirected to the Israeli port city of Ashdod.

The Women’s Boat to Gaza, an initiative of the International Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which had set out from Barcelona, was scheduled to arrive at the port of Gaza on Wednesday night, according to its website. 
Among the Zaytouna-Olivia's 13 passengers are several parliamentarians, an Olympic athlete, a retired U.S. army colonel and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland. 

Another boat, the Amal 2, was forced to turn back to Barcelona due to a technical malfunction. However, organizers have voiced suspicions that the boat was sabotaged. 

According to reports and photos on social media, women and children were gathering on the beaches of Gaza ahead of the boat’s expected arrival. 

PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat strongly condemned the takeover, calling on Israel to immediately release the boat's passengers. "The Palestinian cause for freedom and independence is a universal quest for justice embraced by millions worldwide. The flotilla is a humble yet significant reminder that it is time to turn statements into concrete actions," the statement read.

In January, Israeli forces intercepted the Gaza-bound boat Marianne, in what the Israeli Defense Forces said was a short operation, free of any casualties. The boat was rerouted to the Ashdod port, arriving there Monday evening.

The Swedish boat was carrying 20 activists, among them Israeli lawmaker Basel Ghattas (Joint Arab List) and former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki.

In 2010, Israeli troops boarded the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was attempting to break the blockade of the Strip. Nine passengers were killed during the operation. Another person died in a Turkish hospital in 2014 after being in a coma for almost four years.

The convoy organized by the Turkish aid agency Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH), and was carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The incident caused a deep rift between Israel and Turkey, which was bridged this year in a reconciliation deal that required Israel to pay compensation to the families of the Turkish victims.

Also on Wednesday, a rocket fired from Gaza exploded in the Israeli border city of Sderot on Wednesday after sirens sounded in communities near the Gaza border. No injuries were reported. 

The Salafist group Ahfad al-Sahaba claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. The IDF responded to the rocket fire by firing tank shells at Hamas targets in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, nearly an hour later. According to Palestinian media, no injuries were reported. Israeli jets launched at least four airstrikes against Hamas targets in Gaza City and Khan Younis later Wednesday.
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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- The all-women solidarity ship “Zaytouna” has reportedly been intercepted by Israeli naval forces while on its way to the besieged Gaza Strip, with the crew members reportedly detained, according to live updates released by the group on social media.

SOS video messages were released by the Freedom Flotilla group after the all women crew members were reportedly intercepted and taken by Israeli forces en route to the shores of Gaza. Shortly before the release of the videos, Al Jazeera reported that the activists were expected to be detained and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod, then deported.

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 contact, the Freedom Flotilla posted a video on Twitter of Israeli naval forces leaving Israel’s Ashdod port to intercept the ship. Activists again lost contact with the ship and released a statement claiming that the ship was under attack, adding that they received “reports” that the ship was surrounded by Israeli naval forces.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Saeb Erekat condemned on Wednesday evening the Israeli takeover of the Zaytouna.

“We strongly condemn the Israeli aggression against today’s international Flotilla that attempted to break the illegal Israeli siege over 1.8 million people in Gaza,” Erekat said in a statement. “We call upon the occupying power to immediately release them, as well as on their countries, including Spain, Sweden, Norway, Australia, Canada and the United States, to do everything possible in order to prevent Israel from violating the rights of their citizens.”

“The Palestinian cause for freedom and independence is a universal quest for justice embraced by millions worldwide,” Erekat added. “The flotilla is a humble yet significant reminder that it is time to turn statements into concrete actions.”

The Zaytouna was expected to arrive in the besieged Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening after setting off from the shores of Barcelona, Spain last month as part of the larger Freedom Flotilla.

Issam Yusif, head of the world popular committee for the support of the Gaza Strip, said in a statement in August that the initiative would help to highlight the Palestinian struggle for freedom and an independent state, as well as the everyday Israeli violations of international law and the Palestinian right to freedom of movement.

He also expressed hope that the initiative would help to end the increasingly “tragic situation” of the blockade of the Gaza Strip, as the needs of the Gazan people continue to multiply despite the little aid they receive.

The Freedom Flotilla initially consisted of another solidarity ship called “Amal” -- meaning “hope” in Arabic -- but according to the committee the Amal ship did not participate in the solidarity mission after facing "unforeseen circumstances" that were out of the control of the organizers.

However, organizers decided to keep the Amal solidarity ship for use in later campaigns centered on ending Israel’s devastating siege on the Gaza Strip.

The Gaza Strip has suffered under an Israeli military blockade since 2007, when Hamas was elected to rule the territory. Residents of Gaza suffer from high unemployment and poverty rates, as well as the consequences of three devastating wars with Israel since 2008, most recently in the summer of 2014.

The 51-day Israeli offensive, termed “Operation Protective Edge” by Israeli authorities, resulted in the killings of at least 1,462 Palestinian civilians, a third of whom were children, according to the UN.

The flotilla is the fourth of its kind since 2010, when the first Freedom Flotilla was brutally attacked by Israeli naval forces, who killed ten Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara ship.

No Israelis were ever charged for the killings on the Mavi Marmara, despite a case being filed at the International Criminal Court (ICC) charging Israeli officials with war crimes.

An agreement in June between Israel and Turkey, which reportedly included a commitment by Turkey to pass a law voiding all old lawsuits against the Israeli soldiers who participated in the raid on the aid flotilla, ended six years of diplomatic strife following the attack.

The UN has said that the besieged Palestinian territory could become "uninhabitable" by 2020, as its 1.8 million residents remain in dire poverty due to the Israeli blockade that has crippled the economy, while continuing to experience the widespread destruction wrought by three Israeli military offenses, and the slow-paced reconstruction efforts aimed at rebuilding homes for some 75,000 Palestinians who remain displaced following the last Israeli assault in 2014.