Activist Kit Kittredge of Quilcene was aboard one of two boats that were intercepted by the Israeli military on Friday.
Israel has begun deportation procedures for a group of pro-Palestinian activists who tried to breach its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, The Associated Press said today.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad said 22 activists are being processed and should be sent home within 72 hours.
Two Greek crew members were flown home today.
Three journalists from the U.S., Spain and Egypt were released and told to leave by Sunday.
Kittredge, a representative of the anti-war advocacy group Code Pink, was aboard the Tahrir, which was sailing to Gaza with the Freedom Waves flotilla to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The Israeli military said in a statement Friday that Tahrir, a Canadian vessel and an Irish boat named Saoirse , which together had 27 people from five countries on board, would be taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod, Reuters reported.
A military source told Reuters that nobody was injured when the boats were boarded.
Israel says its naval blockade is vital to stop weapons from reaching Palestinian militant groups like Hamas, which rules Gaza.
Said Huwaida Arraf, spokeswoman for Freedom Waves to Gaza, according to CNN:
“It’s clear that 27 civilians on two small boats, carrying only medicine, constituted no security threat to the Israeli state, and that the determination to keep them out is only a furtherance of Israel’s policy of collective punishment, a crime against humanity.”
Kittredge said Thursday that Israelis made contact with the group and told them to change their radio channel, CNN reported.
Kittredge said the group declined to do so.
Late Thursday, two Israeli navy ships shadowed the ships before pulling back, the group said.
The activists said the ships had been “illegally boarded.”
Pro-Palestinian activists have mounted numerous attempts to reach the impoverished coastal strip by boat to draw attention to the 5-year-old blockade, which they say amounts to the collective punishment of Gaza’s residents, The Associated Press said.
Kittredge, 53, has traveled to Gaza several times to bring aid to the population while focusing attention on what she believes to be Israel’s mistreatment of Gaza’s Palestinian population.
Democracy Now quoted Kittredge on its website, http://tinyurl.com/5sx7pge, on Thursday:
“I anticipate that the Israeli army, probably, the navy, is probably considering boarding us at some point on our way to Gaza and the siege,” Kittredge was quoted as saying.
“I’m not feeling fearful. I’m feeling actually pretty peaceful. And that’s what we are: we are a peaceful boat and a peaceful flotilla going to end the siege.”
