KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 — A ship on a humanitarian mission to Palestine carrying 22 activists from around the world is believed to have been seized by Israel when the ship was approaching Gaza.

Humanitarian Care Malaysia (MyCare) chief executive officer Kamarul Zaman Shaharul Anwar said the vessel Al-Awda had lost communication with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s media contacts and in the last report received from the ship’s radio, the ship’s commanding officer said four Israeli warships were seen approaching the vessel.

He said they were unable to contact Malaysian representatives in the ship using a satellite phone as usual and MyCare’s Just Future for Palestine (JFP) Monitoring Centre had also lost contact with JFP mission members.

"We lost contact with the ship at 7.15pm Malaysian time (1.15pm Gaza local time) when the ship was less than 49 nautical miles from Gaza,” he said in a statement last night. — Bernama