At last report, Tuesday evening Israel time, self-aggrandizing Seif Quaddafi’s aid ship to Gaza was about 50 miles from the Gaza coast.

The Israeli Navy earlier communicated a request to the ship that it offload in Sinai at either the Egyptian port of El Arish or the port of Ashdod in Israeil.

Latest communication to the ship was that it “will be raided if it continues on course to a Hamas-held enclave”, which of course means Gaza.

UPDATE:

Just before midnight local time in Israel (just before 5pm in New York) one or more Israeli ships were closing in on the Libyan ship and warned that it was entering a closed military zone. The IDF released this official statement: “The navy just began its process of trying to stop the ship. At this time the process of communicating with them has begun.”

UPDATE:

Libyan ship captain has requested permission to dock at Egyptian port. Egypt has given him permission to do so. IDF is happy about that, but says they will continue to keep an eye on the ship.

Communique from activists say they will breach the Israeli blockade at dawn, which can be interpreted as between 4:39 and 5:31 AM local Israel time. It is now 1:09 AM in Israel. It is 6:09 PM in New York.

UPDATE:

30 minutes ago, Voice of America said, “The United States urged Libya on Tuesday to avoid confrontation with Israel over a Libyan ship heading for the blockaded Gaza Strip with aid supplies for Palestinians.” Please take note that the official US warning is to Libya, not the activists. It is now 1:17 AM in Israel.

Webs within webs. A well-connected Israeli source has broken the inside story of the Amalthea, the Libyan-funded ship that sailed from Greece and was initially headed for the Gaza blockade… but then seemed to acquiesce under Israeli threats and headed toward a Sinai port to be offloaded under Israeli supervision. No problem.

There might be a problem. (more…)