BEIRUT - A yacht carrying international peace activists and medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip was turned back and damaged in an altercation with the Israeli navy yesterday, Israel and trip organizers said.

The vessel, called SS Dignity, was greeted by a small, cheering crowd as it pulled into the southern Lebanese port of Tyre with damage near the prow. Its aid trip was foiled as Israel wages a major bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 360 people since Saturday.

Yigal Palmor, Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said an Israeli navy ship intercepted the boat, which he said ignored a radio order to turn back as it approached Gaza early yesterday.

Palmor said the boat tried to outmaneuver an Israeli navy ship and crashed into it, slightly damaging both vessels. The navy then escorted the boat out into the territorial waters of Cyprus.

But passengers and crew aboard the SS Dignity disputed the Israeli account, saying the Israeli vessel rammed the ship.

"We were prevented from entering Gaza . . . by Israeli patrol boats that tracked us for about 30 minutes. They shone their spotlight on us, and then all of a sudden they rammed us approximately three times, twice in the front and once in the side," said former US representative Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, who was aboard the boat.

"Communications from the Israelis indicated that we were involved in terrorist activities. . . . I presume that's why they rammed our boat," she added.

The boat's British captain, Denis Healey, said the Israeli action occurred "without any warning or any provocation." Organizers said the boat was in international waters - 90 miles off the coast of Gaza - when it was intercepted.

The 66-foot yacht set off from Cyprus on Monday with almost 4 tons of Cypriot-donated medical supplies, including antibiotics, as well as 16 passengers from the United States, Cyprus, Britain, Australia, Ireland, and elsewhere.

The trip was organized by the Free Gaza group, which has made five deliveries of aid by boat to Gaza since August, defying a blockade imposed by Israel when Hamas gained control of the territory in June 2007.

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