By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Libyan-chartered ship carrying aid for Palestinians set a new course for Egypt on Wednesday after Israel's navy warned it away from the blockaded Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said.
The Moldovan-flagged Amalthea was heading to Egypt's El Arish port, the official said. In Tripoli, the state-backed charity organising the mission did not return calls for comment.
A satellite-guided shipping map on MarineTraffic.com showed the Amalthea on a southeasterly approach to El Arish, 35 miles (56 km) away, with an estimated arrival time of 1400 GMT. The ship had earlier been absent from the map, suggesting that its GPS tracker was temporarily obstructed or turned off.
Israel had vowed to turn away or seize the Amalthea -- renamed "Hope" by activists -- rather than let it reach Gaza, whose Islamist Hamas rulers the Jewish state wants isolated.
The Israelis are mindful, however, of international censure simmering since their commandos killed nine Turks while boarding another Gaza-bound aid ship in Mediterranean high seas in May.
Outcry at the bloodshed aboard the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara prompted Israel to ease overland trade with Gaza, but it kept the sea blockade, citing risk of arms shipments to Hamas.
"Anyone who wants to bring materials there which are not dangerous materials -- munitions, et cetera -- can bring them through El Arish, can bring them through the (Israeli) port of Ashdod," Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor told Israel Radio.
"What we want is to set the arrangement for inspections, so we can always check and not allow them to bust their way in."
Egypt said late on Tuesday that the Amalthea had requested and been granted permission to dock in El Arish, and that authorities planned to transfer its declared haul of 2,000 tonnes of food and medicine overland to neighbouring Gaza.
Unlike Libya, Egypt has full ties with Israel, and it has placed clampdowns on its own border with the Palestinian strip.
DIFFICULTIES
A charity chaired by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi -- son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi -- chartered the Amalthea and on Tuesday insisted it would hold course to Gaza.
The ship appeared to have been held up in international waters overnight and Israel Radio aired what it said was a recording of the Cuban captain, identified only as Antonio, informing navy negotiators that his engineers were trying to fix mechanical problems.
"It appears that the ship has overcome its difficulties. It is now heading to El Arish," an Israeli official told Reuters.
The confusion over where and when the Amalthea would dock prompted an Israeli official to suggest there was disagreement between the hired crew of 12 and some 10 pro-Palestinian activists aboard determined to defy the Gaza blockade.
Israel Radio also aired what it said was the navy's warning to the captain that he would be held responsible for any showdown at sea. Other aid ships have been impounded in Israel, though some of their cargo was eventually trucked to Gaza.
The Amalthea set sail from Greece on Saturday on a voyage that would ordinarily see it reach Gaza by Wednesday. Rerouting to El Arish would still require the ship to skirt Gazan waters.
Al Jazeera satellite channel, which has a correspondent aboard the ship, said four Israeli warships were in pursuit.
On June 5, the navy commandeered the Irish-owned aid ship Rachel Corrie after it refused orders to turn back or dock in Ashdod for its cargo to be vetted for overland transfer to Gaza.
An Israeli inquiry by a military panel under a retired general into the navy's killing of the Turkish activists concluded on Monday there had been faults in planning the May 31 interception but that commandos had resorted to live gunfire in self-defence.
(Additional reporting by Lamine Ghanmi in RABAT, Editing by Myra MacDonald)
