Photo: REUTERS/John Kolesidis Israel wasn't behind damage of the engine to an Irish ship participating in Gaza flotilla linked, officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Saturday.
Last week, Saoirse, one of the ten ships to sail in the mass movement to break the blockade of Gaza sea, was docked in Turkish waters, when it suffered engine damage. Fintan Lane, Coordinator of the Irish shipping organization in Gaza, called the law of "dangerous sabotage" and said that the boat believed to be that the divers had worked under water to cut a piece of the propeller shaft.
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Damage to the transatlantic Irish caused the boat pull the flotilla.
The controversy surrounding the Saoirse is only the latest in a series of events that have caused the new flotilla difficulty in the establishment of sailing.
On Friday, the Greek Ministry of citizen protection issued a statement saying that the Minister, C. Papoutsis, decided to prohibit the departure of ships flying Greek flags or foreigners "to the maritime area" of Gaza.
"On the orders of the coast guard Hellenic headquarters central to local authorities all of the coast guard Hellenic, all appropriate measures for the implementation of this decision", the statement said.
The Greek Ministry said that the "broader East Mediterranean Sea area will be continuously monitored by electronic means to monitor, where appropriate, of the movements of the ships allegedly involved" in the flotilla from Gaza.
While Cyprus had already banned headed to Gaza to leave its ports of vessels, the Greeks had not taken this measure until Friday.
The Greek Coast Guard intercepted a boat carrying activists we shortly after it set sail from Greece on Friday to join a flotilla of pro-palestinos in Gaza, one of the activists said.
Friday night, the ship's U.S. scheduled to take part in the flotilla from Gaza, the audacity of hope, returned to a Greek port after was intercepted by Greek commandos on Friday night, organizers said via his Twitter feed. The ship was taken under coastguard escort to a coast guard closed base in Greece.
The ship had just left Perama port of Piraeus, the open sea, a Reuters witness said.
Minutes before being intercepted initially, organizers said that the passengers of the ship being prepared for "not violently resist any attempt to stop the boat," said moments later that the ship "is about to set sail," followed by a message saying that the boat had left. By feeding twitter of the ship, said the organizers a ship Greek coastguards approached the audacity of hope was pulling the base, but then accelerated distance.
It is expected that a flotilla of ships plans to challenge the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip Israel to sail the next week, after repeated delays blamed on sabotage Israeli activists. Israel has denied the accusations.
"We are only here two miles in Piraeus". We have detained by the coast guard, his maniobrado ship in front of us services and they are now talking to the captain, they want to turn back, "Ann Wright, one of the activists, told Reuters."
"We are not violent, they pose no threat," he added, saying that the Group was informed of the ban on navigation as he was leaving.
It was not immediately clear how affect global plans for the flotilla departure of the ship. Sign up for our newsletter to receive news directly to your email
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