Medical supplies being loaded into the MV Rachel Corrie, which was named after a 23-year-old American killed in Gaza in 2003. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
Harriet Sherwood in Gaza City and Amy Fallon, guardian.co.uk, 5 June 2010
Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement, the main organisation behind the flotilla, said the passengers and crew had four times refused to accede to Israeli demands to divert to Ashdod voluntarily.
“There’s no way that 20 people are going to resist a fully armed force,” she said. “The fact that Israel boarded a civilian boat in international waters is a violent act.”
She expected the 11 passengers – including the Nobel peace laureate Máiread Maguire– and nine crew would be treated “with kid gloves: the world is watching”.
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