MASADA, Israel (Reuters) – Music lovers have found cause to celebrate in a groundbreaking spectacular opera event at one of Israel’s most important landmarks.

The staging last week of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco on a patch of desert on the shores of the Dead Sea with the historic mountain of Masada as a backdrop has taken Israel Opera to new realms, its director said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s navy boarded a ship carrying aid to Gaza without incident on Saturday, five days after killing nine people on a Turkish aid ship to enforce what Washington calls an unsustainable blockade.

The navy, whose actions on Monday triggered an international outcry, took control of the Rachel Corrie and sailed it to Ashdod, where it docked, the Israeli military said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s navy boarded another aid ship on Saturday to enforce a blockade of Gaza five days after its troops killed nine people on a Turkish aid boat, despite Washington saying the policy was “unsustainable.” The Israeli navy, whose action on Monday triggered an international outcry, took control of the Rachel Corrie without incident, the Israeli military said.

The boat had ignored Israeli orders to divert to Israel’s Ashdod port where Israel had offered to unload the cargo and deliver it to Gaza after inspecting it.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli navy boarded another Gaza-bound aid ship on Saturday after Washington condemned as “unsustainable” a blockade which Israel enforced earlier this week by killing nine people on a Turkish vessel.

The Israeli navy, whose action on Monday triggered an international outcry, took control of the Rachel Corrie without incident, the Israeli military said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli navy boarded another aid ship bound for Gaza on Saturday, as Washington condemned as “unsustainable” a blockade which Israel enforced earlier in the week by killing 9 people aboard a Turkish vessel.

Irish and other activists aboard the Rachel Corrie had ignored Israeli orders to divert to Israel’s Ashdod port.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli navy prepared to board another aid ship bound for Gaza on Saturday, as Washington condemned as “unsustainable” a blockade which Israel enforced earlier in the week by killing 9 people aboard a Turkish vessel.

Irish and other activists on the Rachel Corrie ignored orders to divert to Israel’s Ashdod port. Should it continue to approach the Palestinian enclave, the navy would board the vessel, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli navy intercepted and was shadowing another ship bound for blockaded Gaza carrying aid and activists on Saturday, five days after the bloody seizure of a Turkish ship triggered an international outcry.

A spokeswoman for the Free Gaza group backing the Rachel Corrie, and a journalist aboard the vessel quoted by Al Jazeera, said warships were following the Irish-owned freighter.

JERUSALEM, June 5 (Reuters) – Israel was prepared to
intercept another ship bound for Gaza carrying aid and activists
on Saturday, increasing fears of more international tension over
its blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Israel faces an international outcry after its naval
operation on Monday in which nine Turkish activists were killed
on a ship bound for Gaza.

MISHOR ADUMIM, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli entrepreneurs at an industrial park in the occupied West Bank are rethinking their business strategies to deal with a Palestinian boycott of goods made in Jewish settlements.

Concurrently, businesses are furious at the Israeli government, saying a stricter enforcement of labor law that forces them to pay Palestinians the minimum Israeli wage is more damaging than Palestinian trade and labor sanctions.

JERUSALEM, May 26 (Reuters) – An Israeli military source said on Wednesday that Israel’s navy was ready to prevent a Turkish-led convoy of ships carrying humanitarian aid from entering the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Israel and Egypt closed Gaza’s borders after Islamist Hamas took control of the territory in 2007 and refused to forswear violence against the Jewish state. Gaza’s 1.5 million people say they face shortages of water and medicine.

"In accordance with the directions of the Israeli government, the Israel Defence Forces and the Israeli Navy are preparing to prevent the flotilla from reaching the Gaza shore," the military source said.

The source said naval forces had held a number of exercises to prepare to enforce the sea blockade.

In recent weeks Israel has allowed some goods it used to ban, such as clothes, shoes, wood and aluminum, to enter the strip through land border crossings. It continues to allow a steady flow of humanitarian aid into the coastal territory.

The military source said if the ships did not turn back after being given fair warning, they would be boarded by Israeli naval forces and taken to an Israeli port where the passengers and crew would be sent home and the goods transferred to Gaza.

If forces did board the ships, they would ensure that no "terror operatives or explosives" were on board, the source said.

Israel is under international pressure to relax its blockade, which the United Nations says punishes people in Gaza for the policies of Hamas, whose founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel.

The international flotilla carrying some 10,000 tonnes of medical equipment, housing materials and other supplies is expected to reach Israeli waters in the coming few days. (Additional reporting by Ayala Jean Yackley in Istanbul; Editing by Noah Barkin)