BEIRUT - A damaged international aid ship operated by the Free Gaza Movement arrived at the southern Lebanese port of Tyre Tuesday, following a collision with an Israeli naval vessel as it had been sailing toward the Gaza Strip.

The 'Dignity', carrying aid and activists from the Free Gaza Movement, had sailed from Cyprus late Monday. At around 5 am (0300 GMT) it collided with an Israeli naval vessel some 130 kilometres off Gaza.

A statement released by the Free Gaza Movement - which has sent a number of ships carrying aid and international activists to Gaza this year to campaign against the siege of that territory - said the Dignity had been 'attacked' by the Israeli Navy - rammed by a gunboat causing heavy damage.

A subsequent statement by an Israeli military spokesman said the Israeli vessel had approached the Dignity in an effort to make it turn back, as Gaza had been designated a closed combat zone, but an abrupt manoeuvre by the aid vessel caused a collision. There were no reported casualties in the incident.

Among the passengers on the vessel was former al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj, who had spent six and a half years at US detention centre Guantanamo Bay, after having been accused of links to al- Qaeda.

'We are on a humanitarian mission, but the Israelis stopped us ... but we will do our outmost to continue our trip,' al-Hajj said.

'We are determined to go to Gaza and we are looking for another boat as we speak,' Free Gaza activist Derek Graham said.

According to Graham the boat was in international waters about 70 kilometers off the Israeli coast and 135 kilometers from Gaza, when the incident occurred.

'It was surrounded by 11 Israeli naval vessels,' he said.

'They ordered the boat to stop, and we didn't. They began firing over the boat ... when the boat wouldn't turn back, one of the naval vessels rammed the boat,' he added.

'We were simply on a mission of mercy carrying medical supplies donated by the people of Cyprus,' he said. -DPA