It was at least the third vessel blocked this year while challenging Israel’s naval blockade and seeking to deliver supplies by sea to a population facing rising starvation.

Israel rolled back curbs on aid distribution to Gaza over the weekend in an effort to defuse a growing international outcry over the hunger crisis convulsing the shattered Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli military has intercepted a Gaza-bound aid ship seeking to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory, detaining 21 international activists and journalists and seizing all cargo,

Israel has long restricted or completely blocked aid to Gaza on the argument that Hamas steals it to use as a weapon of control over the population.

Plus: Hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in mass shootings by Israeli soldiers.

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher has demanded that Israel provide evidence for its accusations that staff with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs were affiliated with Palestinian militants Hamas,

Gazans are in desperate need of essentials after more than 21 months of war, but efforts to get aid into the Palestinian territory - and to its hungry residents - face major obstacles.

In a joint statement the countries call for an end to the war and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.