Freed Bahrainis ready to sail to Gaza again

Manama: The only Bahrainis to have ever been detained by Israel said, hours after their release, that they were ready to take part in a new journey to break the blockade of Gaza.

"We are proud of what we did and we do not have a single regret about the journey. We are willing to repeat it times and times again," said Khalid Shinhoo, one of the five Bahrainis arrested by the Israelis aboard a ship carrying humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza.

"The events gave us much-needed experience and greater resolve to help the Palestinians. In fact, I urge the whole world, with all its institutions, to condemn the immoral crime of piracy against the boat, particularly that the Zionist entity was well aware that we had a humanitarian cargo for people who have been under siege for more than two years," Shinhoo said at a press conference for the Bahraini group after their home-coming.

The Bahrainis were among a group of 21 peace activists that also included Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire, and US former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney., charged with illegal entry to Israel even though their only destination was the port of Gaza with a cargo of aid.

Talking about the conditions under which they were arrested and held, Khalid Abdul Qader, another Bahraini activist, said the ship was seized in international waters on Tuesday.

"The Israelis repeatedly threatened to fire on the boat before six Israeli navy warships and four boats carrying special Israeli units surrounded us. They confiscated all mobile phones and personal electronic items before they took us to an Israeli port and left us in a large facility," he said.

"They searched us again, took our fingerprints and asked us several questions. We were separated from the rest of the group and held in a separate facility. When the Israelis told us to sign papers written in Hebrew, we refused until we eventually had a lawyer who translated what was written," he said.

Israel in the past either allowed humanitarian boats to continue to Gaza or forced them to return to their departure ports. However, this was the first time that they commandeered a ship and docked it at an Israeli port.

Released

The activists were released on Thursday and handed over to a Bahraini delegation waiting for them at the Ben Gourion airport on board of a private plane.

"We are grateful to all those who exerted special efforts to secure our release and our safety, particularly King Hamad," the group said at the conference.

Bahraini authorities negotiated with several countries and organization to have the prisoners released and took the unprecedented step to send an official delegation to Ben Gourion International Airport to repatriate the five activists.

"The foreign ministry informed me that the Bahraini delegation was made up of two people representing the foreign ministry and the interior ministry. The two men travelled to Jordan where they teamed up with Jordanian officials and flew together to Ben Gourion airport. The activists were handed over to the Jordanians while the Bahraini delegation remained on board of the plane," Nasser Al Fadhala, the MP heading the Support Palestine group in the parliament, said.