Iran seized ship ‘linked to Israel’, says state news agency
Iran’s state news agency IRNA said on Saturday that its Revolutionary Guards had seized the MSC Aries vessel it said was “linked to Israel” and it was being transferred to Iran’s territorial waters, reports Reuters.
A Guards navy special forces helicopter boarded the Portuguese flagged vessel and seized it, IRNA added.
Key events
UK foreign secretary David Cameron says he spoke to the Israeli minister Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet and main rival of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday.
In a social media update on X, Cameron said he had discussed “our shared concerns about Iranian threats to attack Israel” with Gantz. It is unclear whether this was before or after news broke of Iran seizing a ship “linked to Israel” (see 11:51 BST) on the strait of Hormuz.
“Further escalation in the region is in no one’s interest and risks further loss of civilian life,” he added.
Today I spoke with @gantzbe to discuss our shared concerns about Iranian threats to attack Israel.
Further escalation in the region is in no-one’s interest and risks further loss of civilian life.
The UK will continue to work with our partners in support of regional security.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) April 13, 2024
Israel’s defence minister tells public not to take ‘law into own hands’ after settler attacks on villages in West Bank
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant has told the public not to “take the law into [their] own hands” as settlers rampaged through several villages across the occupied West Bank, reports the Times of Israel.
After the body of missing Israeli teenager Benjamin Achimeir was found on Saturday (see 13:16 BST), the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security agency said, in a joint statement, that Achimeir was murdered in a terror attack.
“I appeal to the public, let the security forces act quickly in the hunt for the terrorists,” Gallant said on X.
“Acts of revenge will make it difficult for our soldiers in their mission. The law must not be taken into one’s own hands,” he said, expressing his condolences to the family of Achimeir.
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
Al Jazeera are reporting that an overnight Israeli attack destroyed the Abu Bakr as-Siddiq mosque and also damaged nearby houses in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.
“The Israeli army asked the neighbouring houses to evacuate the area because it wants to bomb the mosque,” an elderly resident in the area said, according to Al Jazeera. “The mosque has nothing to do with [Palestinian groups] Hamas or Islamic Jihad. We are responsible for the mosque, the residents of the neighbourhood.”
Geneva-based MSC, which is the manager and commercial operator of the ship seized by Iran on the strait of Hormuz, said it is working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure the wellbeing of the 25 crew abroad and the safe return of the vessel.
According to updates by Reuters, MSC acknowledged the seizure of the MSC Aries, while Zodiac Maritime said the title to the seized vessel was held by Zodiac affliated Gortal Shipping Inc as financier and it had been leased to MSC on a long term basis.
The Guardian’s visuals team has created a graphic that shows the approximate location of the reported vessel seizure by Iran.
It is based on an earlier update from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) that said the vessel had been “reported to have been seized by regional authorities”.
Since that update, Iran’s state news agency IRNA confirmed its Revolutionary Guards had seized the MSC Aries vessel, saying it was “linked to Israel” and was being transferred to Iran’s territorial water
Iran ‘conducting a pirate operation’, says Israeli foreign minister
Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that Tehran is conducting piracy and should be sanctioned for it, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the strait of Hormuz, reports Reuters.
“The Ayatollah regime of Khamenei is a criminal regime that supports Hamas’s crimes and is now conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law,” Katz said.
“I call on the EU and the free world to immediately declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guards corps as a terrorist organization and to sanction Iran now,” he added.
The Israeli army says the body of missing Israeli boy has been found in the occupied West Bank after he was killed in a “terrorist attack.”
The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair sparked a large settler attack on a Palestinian village on Friday and Saturday, AP reported.
The killing of the teen and the settler rampages marked the latest in an escalation of violence in the territory, at a time when Israel is waging war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip
“Security forces are continuing the pursuit after those suspected of carrying out the attack,” the army said Saturday.
Dutch airline KLM will no longer fly over Israel and Iran, Dutch press agency ANP reported on Saturday, citing a KLM spokesperson.
KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, said the move was a precaution, referring to the rising tensions between Iran and Israel, but added that it would continue flying to Tel Aviv, on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.
Iran will bear consequences for any escalation, says Israeli military
Iran will bear consequences if it escalates violence in the region, an Israeli military spokesperson said on Saturday, according to Reuters.
“Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further,” R Adm Daniel Hagari said in a statement.
“Israel is on high alert. We have increased our readiness to protect Israel from further Iranian aggression. We are also prepared to respond.”
Reuters report that the comments by Hagari came after the statement was made in reference to the seizure of a vessel between the United Arab Emirates and Iran.
52 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, says health ministry
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 52 Palestinians were killed and 95 injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.
According to the statement, at least 33,686 Palestinians have been killed and 76,309 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Iran seized ship ‘linked to Israel’, says state news agency
Iran’s state news agency IRNA said on Saturday that its Revolutionary Guards had seized the MSC Aries vessel it said was “linked to Israel” and it was being transferred to Iran’s territorial waters, reports Reuters.
A Guards navy special forces helicopter boarded the Portuguese flagged vessel and seized it, IRNA added.
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires of protests in recent days:
Iran blamed after ship boarded on strait of Hormuz
A video seen by the Associated Press (AP) shows commandos raiding a ship near the strait of Hormuz by helicopter on Saturday, an attack a Middle East defence official attributed to Iran amid wider tensions between Tehran and the west.
According to the AP, the video showed the attack earlier reported by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). Earlier updates from the UKMTO offered no details about the boarding in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah, except that the vessel had been “reported to have been seized by regional authorities”.
Iran did not immediately acknowledge seizing any vessel, nor was there any report carried by state media about the incident.
The defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity with the AP to discuss intelligence matters, shared the video with the news agency. In it, the commandos are said to have descended on to a stack of containers sitting on the deck of the vessel.
The AP say that a crew member on the ship could be heard saying: “Don’t come out.” He then tells his colleagues to go to the ship’s bridge as more commandos come down on the deck. It adds that, one commando can be seen kneeling above the others to provide them potential cover from fire.
Though the AP could not immediately verify the video, it said that it corresponded to known details of the boarding, and the helicopter involved appeared to be one used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, which has carried out other ship raids in the past.
The AP report that the vessel involved is likely the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime. Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group, it adds. Neither MSC nor Zodiac immediately responded to a request for comment by the AP.
According to the news agency, MSC Aries had been last located off Dubai heading toward the strait of Hormuz on Friday and the ship had turned off its tracking data, which has been common for Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has published an update on an incident 50 nautical miles northeast of the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah (see 09:26 BST and 09:38 BST).
In a post on X, the UKMTO wrote that the vessel has been “reported to have been seized by regional authorities”.