JERUSALEM, Feb 5: The Israeli navy on Thursday intercepted a ship delivering 60 tons of supplies from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip and said it was towing the vessel into an Israeli port.

The ship set sail from the Lebanese port of Tripoli on Tuesday in a bid to defy Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Reporters from Arab TV stations Al-Jadeed and Al-Jazeera who were on the vessel said the Israelis fired at the ship before boarding it and beating those on board.

Gunfire could be heard in the background of the telephoned reports aired by their stations.

The organisers, an ad hoc group of Lebanese leftist political and human rights activists, said a total of 18 people were on board and the cargo was comprised of medicine, food, toys and basic humanitarian supplies such as mattresses and blankets.

Among the passengers was 86-year-old Greek Catholic priest Hillarion Capucci, who while serving as an archbishop in Jerusalem was convicted in 1974 by an Israeli court for using his diplomatic status to smuggle arms to Palestinian militants.

The Syrian-born Capucci was jailed but released three years later at the intervention of the Vatican and deported.

The voyage organisers said four journalists, a Muslim cleric and a lawyer _ all Lebanese citizens — as well as a Palestinian Muslim cleric and a British activist were also on board. They had no information on the nationality of the nine crew members.

The Israeli military said that those on board the ship, the Togolese-flagged “Tali,” would be handed over to Israeli immigration authorities and the aid would be transferred to Gaza by land.

“Since they are here illegally, they will be sent to an immigration police facility where they will be questioned,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. “After that, depending on what is decided, they will likely be deported.”

Israel has kept Gaza’s cargo crossings largely closed since the Hamas militant group seized control of the coastal strip in June 2007.

Israel says the blockade is a response to repeated Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel and is necessary to keep arms from reaching Hamas. Since Israel ended a three-week military offensive in Gaza, Hamas has been trying to secure a reopening of the border crossings as part of a long-term cease-fire.

An informal truce has been in place since Jan.18 and Egyptian efforts to work out a more formal long-term deal took a downturn Thursday when a senior Hamas official said his delegation was leaving Cairo without an agreement because of unbridged differences over opening the border crossings.

Egypt is acting as mediator because Israel and Hamas do not have official contacts.

Hamas negotiator Mohammed Nasr said Israel was trying to avoid fully reopening the Gaza borders. He said his group would wait for answers after the Egyptians talk to Israel. Nasr said no date was set for Hamas to return to the Cairo talks.

Hamas officials had said they are ready to commit to a cease-fire with Israel for at least a year in exchange for a full opening of Gaza’s borders. Israel wants a complete halt to rocket attacks and weapons smuggling into Gaza.

The Tali was the latest in a string of vessels that tried to break the Israeli blockade. Israel has permitted several ships to reach Gaza, but blocked others, including a Libyan freighter that was forced to turn around last December.

The military said Tali’s shipment had not been cleared by Israeli authorities. It said a naval patrol spoke by radio to the Tali, told its skipper that it would not be allowed to enter Gaza and the two sides agreed that the vessel would instead sail to the Egyptian port of El-Arish.

But on Thursday morning, the ship tried to double back and slip past the navy, Israel said, raising concerns that it might be trying to smuggle arms into Gaza. Israel technically remains at war with Lebanon and Syria.—AP