The Israeli navy Tuesday seized a French yacht carrying pro-Palestinian activists intending to sail to the blockaded Gaza Strip and forced it to go to Israel's Ashdod port, a military spokeswoman said. There were no reports of violence as the marines boarded the “Dignite-AlKarama” yacht in the eastern Mediterranean, she said. “I can confirm that the yacht has been boarded and that everything went smoothly, there were no casualties,” the spokeswoman said. Chief military spokesman Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai said the passengers were transferred from the small yacht to one of the warships and were sailing to Ashdod. The 17-passenger yacht had declared an Egyptian port as its destination when it left Greek waters on Sunday but then said it was changing course towards the Palestinian enclave and hoped to arrive by Tuesday afternoon. It had planned to sail to Hamas-ruled Gaza as part of a flotilla carrying activists and aid, but other vessels were prevented from sailing after docking in Greece. Activists accused the Greek government of intervening on Israel's side.
