SKeyes Condemns the Israeli navy’s brutal assault against th

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  • 8/9/2019 SKeyes Condemns the Israeli navys brutal assault against th

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    Samir Kassir Foundation , Aref Saghieh Bldg.( Ground Floor), 63, Zahrani St., Sioufi, Achrafieh, Beirut, LebanonTel /Fax: 00961 1 397334, Mobile: 00961 3 372717, E-Mail Address: [email protected]

    Beirut, 31 May 2010

    Press release

    SKeyes Condemns the Israeli navys brutal assault against the FreedomFlotilla

    Gaza SKeyes

    On the morning of Monday, May 31, 2010, Israeli battleships and gunboatsbrutally assaulted ships from the Freedom Flotilla carrying medical andhumanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. This took place in international waters,off the coast of the Palestine. The Israeli navy used various types of liveammunition and disproportionate military force against the unarmed peaceactivists and civilians who flocked on board six ships loaded with aid fromforty countries. 19 were killed and dozens were injured, some criticallywounded, in the latest unofficial toll circulated by news agencies sincecommunication was last established with the Freedom Flotilla.The Israeli battleships then forcibly tugged the Flotillas ships to the port of Ashdod, where it began to detain the peace activists travelling on board inprison No. 26. This prison was specifically installed two weeks earlier for

    this purpose, and can accommodate up to 700 detainees, or the exact numberof the activists on board the Freedom Flotilla. According to some reports,the detained activists have started being questioned by investigators from theIsraeli intelligence services.The SKeyes Centre for Media and Cultural Freedom strongly denounces thehorrific massacre perpetrated by the Israeli forces against unarmed civilianpeace activists on board the medical and humanitarian aid ships bound forGaza. SKeyes also denounces the b latantly pirate act of tugging the Flotillasships to the port of Ashdod, and of arresting the survivors on boardincluding peace activists, human rights activists and journalists. SKeyesconsiders this to be a clear, flagrant and grave violation of international lawand the human rights charter, and calls on the international community tocondemn Israel, and take immediate action, by all means possible andavailable to it, to ensure the safety of the detained activists and their safereturn to their respective home countries.