Intercepted Cargo Ship Carried Little Aid to Gaza

(CNSNews.com) – A Lebanese cargo ship diverted by the Israeli Navy en route to the Gaza Strip was found to be carrying only several dozen kilograms of humanitarian aid, the Israeli military said Thursday, after Arab governments accused Israel of “piracy” and urged the United Nations to intervene.

Arab media reports said earlier that the Israeli action had hampered delivery of 60 tons of aid desperately needed by the Palestinians in Gaza.

The Israeli Defense Forces said after the ship ignored Navy warnings not to approach Gaza, it was boarded and escorted to the nearby port of Ashdod.

A search of the ship, named Tali, revealed a few boxes of food and 150 water bottles, and some medicines, officials were quoted as saying.

It’s not clear why there was so little cargo onboard a ship capable of carrying more than 2,000 tons. (According to an international shipping database, its deadweight tonnage is 2,425.)

The IDF said the goods were to be transferred to aid agencies to take into Gaza.

“Any organization or country that wishes to transfer humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip can do so via the established crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip with prior coordination,” the IDF spokesman’s office said.

Israel has been trying to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas, the Islamist group controlling Gaza whose rocket attacks against southern Israel triggered a three-week Israeli military offensive in December and January.

Another cargo ship, which Israeli officials suspect was carrying Iranian arms bound for Gaza, is currently docked in Cyprus while a U.N. sanctions committee determines whether a U.N. resolution that prohibits Iran from exporting weapons has been breached.

Lebanese cargo vessel Tali is escorted into port after being intercepted by the Israeli Navy on Thursday, February 5, 2009. (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)Israeli allowed 10 Lebanese and Palestinian activists and journalists onboard the Tali to return to Lebanon early Friday. They crossed the land border with the assistance of U.N. peacekeepers stationed there. Others were taken to the Golan Heights, from where he was permitted to cross the border into Syria, Al Arabiya reported.

An Al-Jazeera reporter among the group escorted into Lebanon, Salam Khoder, told the network Friday that she and some others onboard had been beaten.

Prominent among those onboard was Hilarion Capucci, a former Greek-Catholic archbishop of Jerusalem and long-time supporter of the PLO, now in his 80s.

In 1974, the clergyman was sentenced to 12 years in prison for smuggling weapons for the PLO in a church-registered vehicle. After serving a quarter of the sentence, he was freed following strong pressure from the Vatican, and he left Israel.

The Arab League’s envoy to the U.N., Yahya Mahmassani, on Thursday accused Israel of committing an act of piracy and asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to intervene.

The Syrian news agency SANA quoted a foreign ministry official as saying the international community must “condemn this piracy, to act immediately for the release of all the detainees [and] to commit Israel to allow the Palestinian people access to the humanitarian aid on board the ship.”

The List

5 exectutive ordersFirst week in office
Insults China

First interview, with foreign news outlet- for Muslims

Talks about his muslim family

Picks fight with Limbaugh

Won't take question from press

Allows to FDA approve first human embryonic stem cell safety trial (3 days after Pres. Bush left) Excludes any compromise with GOP on Stimulus bill Massive pork in stimulus bill

5% of stimulus bill to actually go to infrastructure

Offers to negotiate directly with Iran

Puts 5 millionairs on his cabinet

Makes a tax cheat the Sec. of the Treasury

Bombs Pakistan

Argues with the Pope on abortion

Signed the Schip bill, that gives health care to illegals Won't allow a video of his retaking of the oath of office Ordered the closure of Gitmo

Halts all pending Bush regulations

Second week:

Appoints extremist Samantha Powers to head foreign policy team

Secret nuke talks with Iran/Syria

Appoints tax cheat for commerce secretary

Illegal alien aunt, granted a "stay" of deportation Daschle the tax cheat/lobbiest proposed as secretary for health care

Nancy Killefer for candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for federal government fails to pay household help taxes ...withdrawn

12 lobbyists (or more) appointed to high gov't positions within the first 14 days of his administration (up to 17 by another source)

Administration demands defense cuts of 10% during wartime Obama envoy George Mitchell tells Palistinians " they believe can extract from Israel concessions reaching "much further" than during talks held under the previous administration

The European Union warns the US yesterday against plunging the world into depression by adopting Obama's “Buy American” policy, intensifying fears of a trade war Obama immediately backs down from policy

After stating her priority would be "mum-in-chief", Michelle Obama goes on listening tour and then makes political speeches with her husband not yet one month in office...

George Mitchell resigns from a Saudi Lobbying firm, two weeks into his appointment as "Special Middle East Envoy" Obama administration says it will cancel 77 drilling leases near Utah parks

Ogden, President Obama's pick for deputy attorney general, used to represent Playboy

Steven Chu, Obama's secretary of energy (not a climatologist) states: California's farms and vineyards could vanish by the end of the century, and its major cities could be in jeopardy, if Americans do not act to slow the advance of global warming

Obama names “most fined” Washington State bureaucrat Ron Simms to the #2 position in HUD

Hilda Solis, Obama's pick for labor secretary's husband is found to be a tax cheat just before the confirmation vote

Directed military prosecutors to revoked charges pending against mastermind of USS Cole bombing

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