Israel releases two from detained ship; McKinney still aboard

Israel on Wednesday sent home two of the 21 people taken aboard a ship that attempted to break through a blockade and deliver supplies to Gaza.

The other passengers remain in Israeli custody, among them former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and 1977 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mairead Maguire, who co-founded a group that worked for peace in Northern Ireland.

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A ship carrying foreign peace activists, including former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, is escorted by the Israeli navy before entering the port in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, Tuesday, June 30, 2009. The Israeli navy intercepted the ship for trying to break a blockade of Gaza.

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Israeli naval forces on Tuesday intercepted the Greek-registered Arion in the Mediterranean Sea 23 miles off the Gaza coast.

The Arion was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to the U.S.-based Free Gaza Movement. The organization had renamed the ship Spirit of Humanity and refers to it by that name on its web site.

Gaza has been under Israeli blockade since 2007, when Hamas gained control of the government.

Israeli diplomatic officials said the ship was rerouted to the port of Ashdod. Its cargo would be delivered to Gaza by road after a security inspection.

On Wednesday, Israeli authorities released an American filmmaker and a Danish human rights activist, according to freegaza.org, the Free Gaza Movement’s web site.

McKinney campaigned for president in 2008 as the Green Party candidate. The Green Party late Tuesday called on the White House and the U.S. State Department to intervene and demand the release of the detained passengers.

It is the second time that McKinney was aboard a ship that encountered an Israeli naval vessel while trying to reach Gaza. A supply ship and an Israeli naval vessel collided last December.

Israeli consular officials on Tuesday accused McKinney of a “reckless political stunt.”

McKinney served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003 and from 2005-07.