Israel has become routine something extraordinary: the assault and detention on the high seas and in international waters of citizens from around the world. In the last three years alone, it has illegally boarded and arrested the crew members of six humanitarian flotillas trying to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
To achieve this projection of force so far from its shores, it uses a new warship that was delivered in 2023 by the United States and which has been classified as “the monster” by the Israeli press for its size and capacity.
This is the ship amphibious landing INS Nachshondelivered by the US and which the Israeli Navy has adapted to turn it into a kind of temporary detention centeraccording to the testimonies of the activists who have passed through it.
AH Nachshon Israeli amphibious landing ship / Israel Defense Forces
“It was prepared as a floating jail and like a interrogation centerhe denounced last week in the Congress of Deputies Agustin Santosdiplomat and deputy of Sumar. “The purpose of that ship is expand the capacity for illegal action and against international law Israelnot only territorially in the failed states of Lebanon, Syria and Iraqbut also in the water, in the Mediterranean Sea, on all the coasts that bathe today the sea of which we are part.” And he added: “When the testimonies arrive [de los activistas allí retenidos] It will be clear what the objective of that ship is.”
EL PERIÓDICO has obtained one of those testimonies.
“It was prepared as a floating prison and as an interrogation center,” denounced the diplomat and deputy Agustín Santos in Congress.
A “prison yard” with “barbed wire”
“They took us in zodiac boats to a huge military ship. Once there, the first thing they did was order us to take off our jackets, belts and other things that they were telling us to do. Then they made us get on our knees on the groundwith his hands behind his head and his head almost touching the ground,” he tells this newspaper. Marion Tasqueran activist who traveled in the flotilla attacked by Israel on April 30. “From there, they moved us pretty randomly. The truth is that it didn’t seem to make much sense. They searched us with our heads against an Israeli flag.”
Then, he says, they made them enter a kind of “prison yard” inside the ship, formed by four walls made with metal containers like those usually transported by freighters. There was “barbed wire at the top, watchtowers and Israeli soldiers watching us.
They slept in containers. There were three for that purpose. “They had a much smaller capacity than the number of people they had there. A third of the people had to sleep outside. It was a terrible space to spend all day. In the morning, when the sun was shining directly on those metal containers, that was an oven. There were people with heat strokebecause it was really very suffocating. And at night it was terribly cold, even inside the containers; Not to mention the people who had to sleep outside,” says Tasquer. “One thing they did a lot was come by while we were sleeping and hit the containers from outside, as if to startle and scare us. And of course, with that material they are made of, the noise was very loud. There was matsthe typical gym ones, the kind that if they get wet they drip. And there were four portable toilets, at each end of the patio.”
It has a “prison yard” with “barbed wire at the top and watch towers,” says Mariona Tasquer.
Shayetet Elite Force 13
The ship has been converted for its purpose as a floating prison. Built by Bollinger Shipyards in LouisianaINS Nahshon has an overall length of 95 meters and an approximate displacement of 2,500 tons.
It also serves as a mother ship to house the members of the Shayetet 13 (Flotilla 13)an elite unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tasked with high seas assault operations, tactical boarding and maritime interception. They use speedboats to board target ships.
“It will allow the Israel Defense Forces to expand their operational flexibility in the various theaters of operations and will provide them with new capabilities,” an IDF spokesperson said during its inauguration after receiving it.
Dozens of Spaniards detained
In the “monster” it is believed that at least the 33 Spaniards and dozens of other people of different nationalities captured this Monday by the Israeli Armed Forces in waters near Cyprus, 250 nautical miles from Gaza.
AH Nachshon Israeli amphibious landing ship / Israel Defense Forces
There is no information about his whereabouts more than a day later that the Shayetet 13 attacked 40 ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla and the Freedom Flotilla while they were on their way to try to break the blockade in Gaza, but hundreds of kilometers from its coasts, in international waters.
Ten vessels that they could not intercept continued sailing towards Gaza but all of them were boarded on Tuesday afternoon. 89 people were traveling in them, 11 with Spanish passports, according to the Flotilla organization.
“No jurisdiction”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, harshly charged this Monday against the Israeli practice of assault civilian ships on the high seas.
“It’s a new violation of international law just 15 days after the previous totally illegal interception,” he denounced, in reference to the Global Sumud Flotilla, intercepted on April 30 in waters near Greece when it was heading to Gaza.
Then, Israel only took two of the activists to its territory, the Spanish Saif Abukeshek and the Brazilian Thiago Ávila, who were imprisoned and released 10 days laterwhile the rest of the activists were landed in Crete.
This Monday afternoon, Albares did not know the fate of the detainees. “What I do know is that they are violating International Law and the Law of the Sea. What I do know is that no Israeli agent has any jurisdiction nor any power over any Spaniards who are on those ships at the moment.” “Whatever they do, they disembark them in Cyprus, take them to Israel, it is unacceptable and is in any case an illegal detention,” he concluded.
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