Tel Aviv (Reuters) – Israel's navy boarded a ship carrying aid to Gaza without incident on Saturday, five days after its commandos killed nine people on a Turkish aid ship while enforcing a blockade Washington has called unsustainable. The Israeli navy, whose actions on Monday triggered an international outcry, took control of the Rachel Corrie and sailed it to the port of Ashdod where it docked on Saturday evening, the Israeli military said. The cargo vessel had ignored the navy's orders to divert and allow its cargo to be unloaded and inspected before delivery to Gaza. The military said in a statement: "19 people were on board the boat including eight crew, all of whom will be transferred to the appropriate authorities in the Interior Ministry." The army said the ship had been boarded "with the full compliance of the crew and without incident". Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said all 19 people on board would be deported within hours. Israeli 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." Carrying Irish and other activists, the Rachel Corrie -- named after a pro-Palestinian activist killed in Gaza in 2003 -- was the latest attempt to break the four-year old blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza with the stated aim of stopping its Hamas rulers from bolstering their arsenal to fight the Jewish state. "Israel will continue to exercise its right to self defense. We will not allow the establishment of an Iranian port in Gaza," Netanyahu said. Kevin Squires, national coordinator of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Dublin, one of whose members was aboard the Rachel Corrie, called the boarding of the boat "another brazen act of Israeli piracy".
