ISRAEL has denied intercepting a second international aid ship headed for the Gaza Strip today, just five days after a deadly raid on similar vessels.
Spokesman for the activists, Amjad al-Shawa, told AFP the Rachel Corrie had been intercepted 35 miles (56km) off Gaza.
“Several Israeli boats surrounded them and prevented them from reaching Gaza,” he said.
“They try to take the boat, maybe to (the southern Israeli port city of) Ashdod or maybe to another place.”
Mr Shawa said communication with the boat had been “completely cut” but the committee would keep trying to reach them.
However, the Israeli military completely denied the report, with a spokeswoman telling AFP: “No, it has not been intercepted”.
Military sources also said there had been “no source contact” with the vessel which has 15 people on board, including Irish and Malaysian activists, four Indonesian crew and a Scottish captain.
Israeli public radio also said the Rachel Corrie had been intercepted and was being escorted by least three navy vessels through a stretch of water some 35 miles from the Egyptian coast.
Martin Quigley, a Dublin-based spokesman for the vessel, which is carrying 15 people and tonnes of aid for Gaza, could not confirm the information and said he had not been in contact with the boat.
“They had agreed to call us the minute they spotted any Israeli ships,” Mr Quigley said, saying he had not been able to reach the passengers on the satellite phone.
“It sounds like the phone is off the hook.”
The incident comes at a very sensitive time for Israel, which is struggling with the diplomatic fallout from a deadly raid on Monday on a flotilla of Gaza-bound aid boats, which left nine people dead, most of them Turks.
The Rachel Corrie had been due to sail with that flotilla but had been delayed for technical reasons.
