ALBAWABA – The Israeli public broadcaster said that the navy had taken the Marinette, the last ship in the "Steadfast Fleet." The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, on the other hand, said that officials had started the process of deporting activists from the fleet who agreed to sign expulsion orders.
On Thursday night, the "Steadfast Fleet" said on social media that the Marinette was still on its way to the Gaza Strip, even though all the other ships in the fleet had been stopped.
According to Al Jazeera's reporter, the Marinette, which was carrying six activists from different countries, had made it 54 nautical miles (about 100 kilometers) from Gaza, which is about 20 miles past the point where the first ships in the fleet were stopped.
On Thursday, Israel's Foreign Ministry said, "If the ship gets too close, its attempt to enter an active combat zone and break the blockade will also be stopped."
The Freedom Flotilla goes on
Nine ships from the "Freedom Flotilla" coalition, including the Alf Madeline, kept sailing straight toward Gaza after leaving the Italian island of Sicily on September 25. This happened at the same time as the "Steadfast Fleet" was stopped. Despite Israeli interceptions, the organizers say they are still determined to get to Gaza.
Another ship, Al-Dhamir ("The Conscience"), left port with dozens of journalists and medical workers from 25 countries on board.
The journalists and doctors on board said they were trying to join their coworkers in the "Freedom Flotilla" to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. In May, the Al-Dhamir was shot at by Israelis off the coast of Malta.
Updates on the Steadfast Fleet
The Israeli government said that they had stopped all of the "Steadfast Fleet" ships, and the people who organized them called for immediate international action.
The International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza said that some of the people who were arrested on the ships that were stopped had started an open-ended hunger strike when they were taken into custody.
