Gaza activists say ship sabotaged in Greece

Gaza activists say ship sabotaged in Greece
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press – 15 hours ago
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Pro-Palestinian activists who plan to breach  Israel's sea 
blockade of the Gaza Strip said Tuesday that they had  increased security around 
their docked flotilla after an alleged act of  sabotage on one of the vessels in 
a Greek port.
In a statement,  Scandinavian organizers said "hostile divers" had cut the 
propeller  shaft of the "Juliano," a ship shared by Swedish, Norwegian and Greek  
activists. They said the damage can be repaired and that it will not  affect 
plans to sail for the Palestinian territory toward the end of the  week.
Even so, the 10-ship flotilla has already been delayed,  beset by administrative 
problems with Greek port authorities that  activists blame on Israeli diplomatic 
pressure. Greece's financial  crisis raised the prospect of further 
complications, with protesters  blockading the port of Piraeus as part of a 
48-hour general strike that  began Tuesday.
"We have increased alert on all the ships. We are  having a 24/7 vigil," said 
Dimitris Plionis, a flotilla representative.  He speculated that the alleged 
sabotage was carried out by "highly  trained" individuals, possibly with a 
military or intelligence  background, though he was not specific about the 
possible culprits.
Norwegian  delegation leader Torstein Dahle said in a statement that the 
incident  shows "someone is willing to go to great lengths to stop the flotilla  
from sailing."
Flotilla organizers said the "Juliano" had been  taken out of the water and was 
in Perama, on the outskirts of Piraeus  port near Athens.
Israel warns it will stop any attempt to break  the sea blockade of Gaza, saying 
its measures prevent weapons from  reaching Iran-backed Hamas militants who 
violently seized control in  2007. Last year, nine activists on a Turkish aid 
vessel died in a  botched Israeli raid on a similar flotilla, with each side 
accusing the  other of starting the violence.
Citing intelligence reports,  Israeli military spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital 
Leibovich warned that the  new flotilla is carrying sulfuric acid for use 
against Israeli soldiers  if they try to board the boats. She said the navy has 
trained for the  past year to deal with various scenarios and has developed 
"soft power  tactics" to cope with flotilla passengers without engaging in 
physical  contact with them.
"Boarding on the ships will be the last resort  for us. We are planning to ask 
the flotilla not to head toward the Gaza  port," she said. Leibovich emphasized 
the Israeli soldiers' right to  defend themselves from any attack.
Dror Feiler, one of the  flotilla organizers, said between 300 and 400 activists 
hoped to set  sail by the end of the month as planned, despite the snags they 
have  encountered. He said participants were peaceful and he accused the  
Israeli military of spreading rumors that activists were arming  themselves with 
chemicals and wanted to harm Israeli soldiers.
"If  they have any knowledge of such substances or such persons, please  inform 
me because I will take it away from the ships," he said. "I am  more interested 
than they are" in doing so, because that would give the  military a pretext to 
attack the flotilla, he said.
An  international uproar ensued after last year's flotilla raid, and Israel  
eased restrictions on cargo crossing into Gaza by land. This month,  Egypt 
reopened its Rafah passenger crossing with Gaza after maintaining  its own 
blockade of the territory of 1.5 million people.
Flotilla  leaders describe Israel's blockade as a human rights violation and  
dismiss calls to use Israeli-approved channels for distribution of  medicine and 
other aid. Greece is the base of their operation, but they  have previously not 
disclosed the exact location of their boats because  of security concerns and 
fear that publicity would attract diplomatic  pressure to scrap their mission.
Adam Qvist, the spokesman for the  three-man Danish delegation in the flotilla, 
said a Canadian-flagged  boat that includes activists from Denmark, Canada, 
Germany, Belgium and  Australia was not in the same harbor as the vessel that 
was allegedly  sabotaged.
"We are working to avoid sabotage by, for instance, not  revealing anything 
about the ship or saying where it is anchored in  Greece," Qvist said. "We have 
to be on our guard all the time."
Associated Press writers Karl Ritter in Stockholm, Jan M. Olsen  in Copenhagen, 
and Aron Heller and Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed  to this report.
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