JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s navy boarded a ship carrying aid to Gaza without incident yesterday, five days after killing nine people on a Turkish aid ship to enforce what Washington calls an unsustainable blockade.

The navy, whose actions on Monday triggered an international outcry, took control of the Rachel Corrie and sailed it to Ashdod, where it docked, the Israeli military said.

The Irish-owned cargo vessel had ignored the navy’s orders to divert and allow its cargo to be unloaded and inspected before delivery to Gaza.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the 19 passengers and crew had been taken to an Interior Ministry holding facility near Tel Aviv pending deportation, probably within hours.

“The passengers and crew will be processed and will be put on the next suitable flight to their place of origin,” he said.

The army said the ship had been boarded in the Mediterranean “with the full compliance of the crew and without incident”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: “Forces used the same procedures for Monday’s flotilla and Saturday’s boat but were met by a different response.

“On today’s ship and in five of the six vessels in the previous flotilla, (their boarding) procedure ended without casualties. The only difference was with one ship where extremist Islamic activists, supporters of terrorism, waited for our troops on the deck with axes and knives.”

The Rachel Corrie, carrying Irish, Malaysian and other activists, is named after a pro-Palestinian activist killed in Gaza in 2003.
Its mission was the latest bid to break a blockade imposed on Gaza four years ago with the stated aim of stopping its Hamas rulers from bolstering their arsenal to fight the Jewish state.