GAZA, May 28 (KUNA) -- The Israeli army has announced on Friday that its navy is fully poised to seize control of the ships of the international marine convoy, aka Freedom Flotilla, that aims at reaching the coast of Gaza in order to break the Israeli siege imposed upon it, according to Radio Israel.
The navy commander Major General Eli Marom will lead the takeover operation of the flotilla which was code-named "Winds of heaven", it added.
"The marine commandoes supported by the personnel of the Israeli Prison Service Select Anti-riot Squad, Mitsada will carry out the operation and they will be masked in order to be not identified while seeking the assistance of the teams of from Oketz, a special military Israeli unit meaning the Sting," the radio said.
Further, those commandoes will seek the assistance of sniffer dogs to find out explosives, weapons or terror elements following taking over the vessels.
It added that "these forces were trained on the takeover operation including jumping with ropes from gunships to the decks of targeted vessels," noting that "all holidays including weekends and other off days were cancelled in the Israeli Navy." Moreover, Israeli Navy Commander "gave directives to the personnel who will take part in the Winds of Heaven operation to the effect of not being dragged into probable provocations from the passengers of the sea convoy, but to do their tasks accurately and stick to self-restraint as long as this does not imperil their lives," the radio station stated.
It also said that "some reserve sea commandoes were summoned as experienced combatants like them will be more self-composed in the event of emergencies that might arise on the decks of this Convoy's vessels." It added that "within the attempts of reducing the media harms that might afflict Israel, the army will resort to electronic jamming to intercede any transmission from the Convoy's vessels." Finally, it said that the operation will include five stages with the first one calling on the vessels to return and the latest one ending with arresting the passengers on the decks and repatriating them to their countries of origin in case they reject to return. (end) mt.aff KUNA 281555 May 10NNNN