Israel seizes Gaza-bound aid ship

The Lebanese have been trying to get aid shipments to Gaza

A Lebanese ship carrying aid for Gaza was stopped by the Israeli navy and is being escorted into port, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak says.

Earlier, officials in Lebanon said Israeli gunboats had fired on the ship before soldiers boarded it. No-one is thought to have been hurt.

Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora has called on the international community to persuade Israel to allow the shipment through.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops have killed a Palestinian militant.

The Israeli military said Ala a-Din Abu Rop was a local commander of the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad group.

There have been sporadic incidents of violence since Hamas and Israel declared separate ceasefires on 18 January, following Israel's three-week attack on the Gaza Strip.

Activists aboard

The aid ship was reported to have set off from the Lebanese port of Tripoli on Tuesday carrying 50 tonnes of medical supplies, food, clothing and toys for Gaza.

The navy boarded the vessel, stopped it and it is now bringing it to Ashdod Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak

Also on board were eight activists and journalists, as well as the former Greek-Catholic archbishop of Jerusalem, Monsignor Hilarion Capucci, who had served time in an Israeli jail in the 1970s for his membership of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

An organiser of the shipment, Maen Bashur, said the ship was confronted by an Israeli military boat 32km (19 miles) off the Gazan coast late on Wednesday.

"We were informed by the crew that the Israeli forces boarded the ship after firing shots at it," he told the AFP news agency. "We have lost contact with them."

He said the ship was asked to turn back as "two Israeli military helicopters flew over the area and fired flares".

Ehud Barak confirmed the ship was in Israeli hands.

"The navy boarded the vessel, stopped it and it is now bringing it to [the Israeli port of] Ashdod," he said.

Search

Ala a-Din Abu Rop was shot dead by Israeli troops during a raid on his home near Jenin, in the West Bank, on Thursday.

An Israeli military spokesman said the 21-year-old was suspected of involvement in attacks on Israelis.

He was fully armed when troops stormed his home, and weapons and ammunition were found during the search, the military said.

Ala a-Din Abu Rop's father said his son had been sleeping, alongside his brothers, when soldiers broke into the house before dawn.