The boat, Zaytouna-Olivia, with three crew members and 10 activists on board, was detained by Israeli forces yesterday.

Humanitarian Care Malaysia (MyCare) confirmed in a statement that the ship and crew members, as well as the activists on board, including Malaysia's sole representative Fauziah Mohd Hassan, were detained at 2.58pm yesterday (8.58pm Malaysian time).

"The Zaytouna ship is expected to be towed by the Israeli military to the port of Ashdod," according to the statement.

Fauziah and the other delegates participated in the mission dubbed 'Women's Boat to Gaza' (WBG) to challenge the Israeli blockade on Gaza after the land routes to the strip were blocked by Israel and Egypt.

The other delegates were from Tunisia, Israel, Algeria, Canada, Turkey, United States, Sweden, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, to symbolise universal solidarity with the people of Palestine.

The Zaytouna-Oliva, which carried the 13 delegates, set sail at 8pm on Sept 14 (Barcelona time) from Port Vell and stopped at Ajaccio (first leg of the journey) on Sept 19 before proceeding to Messina (second leg of the journey).

MyCare will hold a press conference on this later today.

- Bernama