The interception of an Irish ship trying to break Israel's naval blockade on Gaza was violent and dangerous, activists have claimed.

The Israeli embassy in Ireland has said a Gaza flotilla that includes an Irish ship boarded by Israeli forces today is a provocative publicity stunt that serves no practical purpose.

Israeli ships are reported to be rapidly approaching the Freedom Waves flotilla bound for Gaza.

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore has backed calls for an investigation into damage caused to a Gaza-bound Irish ship.

An Irish aid ship has been forced to pull out of a flotilla attempting to break the Gaza blockade after it was damaged while docked in Turkey.

HUMAN rights activists trying to break the Gaza blockade have vowed to stop Israeli forces from boarding their ship.

Human rights activists trying to break the Gaza blockade have vowed to stop Israeli forces from boarding their ship.

Four Irish rugby internationals have given their backing to a second aid flotilla trying to break the Gaza blockade.

Ireland will press Israel to let activists bring humanitarian goods into Gaza, Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore has said.

AN Irish activist caught up in the Israeli raid on a flotilla of aid ships to Gaza last year yesterday slammed an Israeli report into the attack as a “PR exercise”.

Up to 50 Irish campaigners are expected to join a coalition of pro-Palestinian supporters on a second aid flotilla to Gaza, it was revealed today.

IRISH peace campaigners are preparing to buy a ship to carry up to 50 activists, politicians and media among others to take part in a second international freedom flotilla to war-torn Gaza.

The Free Gaza Movement will keep up its campaign until the siege that is violating human rights is fully lifted, writes Fintan Lane

THE Department of Justice and the gardaí have refused to comment on reports that armed Israeli security personnel were present at a Europa League game in Dublin last week.

Irish consumers are being urged to boycott Israeli produce until the blockade of Gaza is lifted.

ON Tuesday of last week in City Hall, Cork, I attended the launch of the book ‘A Great Sacrifice – Cork Servicemen who Died in the Great War’.

Up to 1,000 people in Dublin city centre today demonstrated against Israel’s Gaza blockade.

THERE were smiles and tears for two freed Irish peace activists who arrived back on Irish shores yesterday after being imprisoned and beaten by Israeli commandos who stormed their aid ship.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has once again demanded Israeli Authorities to show restraint in dealing with the crew of an Irish Aid vessel on its way to Gaza.

AS an Irish aid ship sailed closer to Gaza last night, Ireland’s only Jewish TD called on Israel to lift its blockade of the territory while declaring that the recent attack on aid vessels was “indefensible”.

A leading Irish activist seized by Israeli authorities tonight revealed he was assaulted in custody while three others were severely beaten.

A RELIEVED but angry Shane Dillon has described the moment Israeli navy special forces stormed the Gaza-bound aid flotilla and attacked peace activists with stun guns.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin today repeated calls for Israel to allow aid boat the MV Rachel Corrie through its military blockade of Gaza.

ISRAEL has decided to free hundreds of foreign activists detained following the commando attack on the aid flotilla which left at least nine activists dead.

Two Irish campaigners were detained tonight in Israel after being arrested on a humanitarian mission to Gaza in which at least 15 people were shot dead.

FINTAN LANE (Irish Examiner letters, October 2) seems to have misunderstood me (‘Why it’s safe to criticise Israel’, Irish Examiner letters, September 20).

I BELIEVE we have now got the message that Fintan Lane is most definitely not a fan of the state of Israel (Irish Examiner letters, September 14).

FINTAN LANE (Irish Examiner letters, September 14) continues to ignore all evidence, including that from the UN, concerning the Shebaa Farms on the border of Lebanon and Syria.

FINTAN LANE of Anti-War Ireland (Irish Examiner letters, August 21) urges Irish people to “continue to raise their voices against such a callous disregard for human life” regarding Israeli actions in the Middle East conflict.

IT is unfortunate, that Fintan Lane (Irish Examiner letters, August 25), like many others, does not seem to comprehend the Middle East situation.

HENRY GUTERMAN (Irish Examiner letters, August 24) objects to the use of the word ‘murder’ to describe Lebanese civilian casualties and goes on say that this was ‘war’.

FINTAN LANE’S letter (Irish Examiner, August 21) taking Israel to task for the “mass murder of more than 1,000 men, women and children” points up his disregard for the terrorist Hezbollah and Hamas random suicide bombings, random rocket attacks and kidnappings plaguing Israel for years.

FINTAN LANE is at it again, talking about the “mass murder of more than 1,000 Lebanese men, women and children during nearly 3,000 sorties by the Israeli air force” (Irish Examiner letters, August 21)

FINTAN LANE of Anti-War Ireland was rather disingenuous in his reply to Lola Cohen and Joy Wolfe (Irish Examiner letters, August 15).

BRIAN LUX (Irish Examiner letters, August 17), referring to my recent letter on Lebanon (Irish Examiner, August 15) bizarrely remarks that the mass murder of more than 1,000 Lebanese men, women and children during nearly 3,000 sorties by the Israeli air force is “a tribute to the care and accuracy of the bombing”.

FINTAN LANE tries to attack Israel, this time from a different angle (Irish Examiner letters, August 15).

FINTAN LANE (Irish Examiner letters, August 8) cites 1,000 civilian casualties in Lebanon, mostly resulting from nearly 3,000 sorties by the Israeli air force.

IT is strange to us living in Israel and experiencing at first hand the war with a terrorist organisation that Fintan Lane would criticise Israel (Irish Examiner letters, August 10) for defending its civilians while ignoring the fact that thousands of residents in northern Israel have now endured a month in bomb shelters.

IF members of Anti-War Ireland are seriously opposed to violent conflict, maybe they should be persuading Hezbollah to stop indiscriminately killing Jews, Arabs and Druse in Israel.

A lone protester today told Governor of Florida Jeb Bush to go home after breaching a security cordon around the US president’s brother.

DOES anybody else think that the policing of the 18-hour visit of George W Bush is completely over the top?

THE taking of Bukaku in eastern Congo by former fighters of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) militia briefly caught the attention of the western media, and we saw a flurry of newspaper articles on the vicious conflict in that has been going on there since 1996.