AhlulBayt News Agency: The Hamas Movement has strongly denounced the Israeli military hijacking of the Handala aid ship in international waters and the abduction of its passengers, calling the incident a “crime of terrorism and piracy.”
In a statement released early Sunday, Hamas said the incident was a “blatant challenge to the will of humanity,” accusing the Israeli occupation forces of committing another act of piracy by preventing the humanitarian ship from reaching the besieged Gaza Strip, whose “people are facing a genocidal war and systematic starvation.”
Hamas applauded the activists aboard Handala for their courage and their determination to break the blockade on Gaza despite Israeli threats, affirming that the Palestinian in Gaza and the world received “their message of solidarity.”
Last night, Israeli forces raided the Freedom Flotilla’s Handala ship, detaining its 21 crew members as they attempted to break the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.
“The occupation has disabled our cameras and all communication has been lost,” a spokesperson for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) told foreign media.
A YouTube livestream showed Israeli soldiers boarding the ship, while the activists on the deck, all wearing life jackets, held their hands in the air in surrender.
The Handala, named for a famous Palestinian cartoon character, belongs to the FFC, which has attempted numerous times to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza via sea and deliver aid to Palestinians there.
Two members of the French and European parliaments were among the activists onboard, according to FFC.
“The unarmed boat was carrying life-saving supplies when it was boarded by Israeli forces, its passengers abducted, and its cargo seized,” the FFC said in a statement issued soon after the livestream ended.
The statement added that the supplies included “baby formula, diapers, food, and medicine.”
A few hours before the ship was hijacked by Israeli forces, the FFC released a statement saying that the Handala was steering towards Egypt in an effort to avoid being boarded.
The end of Handala’s journey towards Gaza comes a little over a month after another ship from the Freedom Flotilla, the Madleen, was similarly intercepted on its way to Gaza.
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