Relief boat to Gaza hit
(CNN) -- An Israeli patrol boat struck a boat carrying medical volunteers and supplies to Gaza early Tuesday as it attempted to intercept the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, witnesses and Israeli officials said.
The damaged relief vessel Dignity arrives Tuesday in Tyre, Lebanon, after a collision with an Israeli patrol boat.
CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul was aboard the 60-foot, Gibraltar-registered pleasure boat Dignity when the contact occurred. In a radio message, the Israelis accused the vessel of being involved in terrorist activity, its captain said.
The boat later docked in the Lebanese port city of Tyre.
The Dignity was carrying 16 passengers and crew who were trying to reach Gaza through an Israeli blockade of the territory. It was "very severely rammed" by an Israeli patrol boat that had been pursuing the volunteer boat for about half an hour before the collision. The crew said the vessel was struck intentionally, Penhaul said. Watch the chaos in Gaza and Israel »
But Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor called allegations that the vessel was deliberately rammed "absurd." He said the volunteer boat was trying to outmaneuver the Israeli vessel when it was struck.
"This is why the collision occurred," Palmor said. "There is no intention on the part of the Israeli navy to ram anybody."
The bows of the two vessels struck each other during the incident. He said the Dignity was not "weaving about" and continued on its course as at least two Israeli vessels maneuvered around it.
The incident occurred in international waters about 90 miles off Gaza. The Israelis ordered the vessel to turn back, and it headed to Lebanon after the collision.
The boat was carrying boxes of relief supplies, volunteers and journalists to Gaza, the Palestinian territory now subject to an intense Israeli bombing campaign. Among the passengers were physicians from Britain, Germany and Cyprus and several human rights activists, including former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney.
"I would call it ramming. Let's just call it as it is," McKinney said. "Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and once on the side.
"Our mission was a peaceful mission, but our mission was thwarted by the Israelis, the aggressiveness of the Israeli military."
Hamas has responded with volleys of rocket fire aimed at southern Israeli towns, which have left six Israelis dead -- five of them civilians.
Hamas has vowed to defend Gaza in the face of what it calls continued Israeli aggression. Each side blames the other for violating an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, which formally expired December 19 but had been weakening for months.