GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Israeli navy stopped the Palestinian flotilla that had set out from the Gaza port to break the Israeli blockade with 17 Palestinians aboard. The boat was towed on May 29 to Ashdod naval base in the south of Israel after it had crossed 14 nautical miles from the Gaza Strip toward Limassol port in Cyprus.

Dozens of small Palestinian boats carrying local and international media staff and Palestinian activists accompanied the flotilla transporting students and sick and wounded people across several nautical miles in the waters off the Gaza Strip before leaving it to continue the journey on its own to the Cypriot port.

Israel has been imposing a sea and land blockade on the coastal enclave for 12 years, ever since Hamas’ victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections. The blockade prevents residents of Gaza from traveling outside the strip, and the Rafah land crossing that connects Egypt to Gaza has opened for only a few days each year since Hamas expelled the Palestinian Authority (PA) from Gaza in 2007.

Chairman of the Gaza-based National Committee to Break the Siege, Aladdin al-Batta, told Al-Monitor that he totally blames Israel for what he deemed an "attack" on the Palestinian boat, and described it as “Israeli piracy.” He noted that they contacted several international organizations in the Gaza Strip, mainly the Red Cross, and filled them in on the actions of the Israeli navy against the boat and its passengers.