Israeli forces seize Rachel Corrie

Just five days after a brutal attack by Israel on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, the Israeli military says its forces have seized another Gaza-bound aid ship, named Rachel Corrie.

“Our forces boarded the boat and took control without meeting any resistance from the crew or the passengers,” an Israeli spokeswoman told AFP on Saturday.

“Everything took place without violence,” the official went on to say.

The Rachel Corrie ship is now being towed toward the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, Press TV correspondent Yousef al-Helou reported.

The ship, which seeks to deliver 1,000 tons of humanitarian supplies to the besieged people of Gaza, had earlier refused Israeli calls to divert to its southern port of Ashdod.

Israeli officials had threatened to stop the Irish-owned ship from reaching the Gaza Strip.

The Rachel Corrie was also carrying dozens of activists, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former UN assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday.

The ship is named after Rachel Corrie, a US activist killed in 2003 as she tried to prevent an Israeli military bulldozer from razing a Palestinian home in Rafah.

The new development comes as earlier on May 31, Israeli commandos attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, leaving at least nine activists dead and more than 40 others injured.