2:50 p.m.
Scott Hamann is expected to be deported from Israel in the coming days, according to his father.
Additional Photos
The South Portland filmmaker’s father, Moe Hamann, said a State Department representative telephoned him to say his son was scheduled to be processed Wednesday and should be deported within roughly 72 hours. The State Department representative visited Scott Hamann in detention and said he had injured a toe but was otherwise in good health, the father said.
“I’m very relieved, I really am. I just want him home,” Moe Hamann said.
1 a.m.
A South Portland filmmaker is alive after his Gaza-bound ship was raided by Israeli commandos Monday, according to his father.
Scott Hamann, 29, is pictured in a video being taken into custody by Israeli military officials.
A link to the video posted on YouTube was sent Monday night to the family by David Rubinson, the man who was working with Hamann to document the mission to Gaza for the fledgling website WitnessGaza.com, which has been in operation for roughly a week.
“It was really good news. My wife just flipped out,” said Moe Hamann of Nashua, N.H.
Word came after a day of trying uncertainty for Scott Hamann’s family and friends.
At first the family did not know whether Hamann’s ship had been part of the Free Gaza flotilla.
The ship, Challenger 1, had experienced mechanical problems Friday and had to stop for repairs at the port of Famagusta, on the Turkish side of Cyprus.
The family later learned that the ship had caught up to the flotilla.
An e-mail the family received Monday morning provided some hope.
A news release from the Free Gaza site was e-mailed to Moe Hamann under Scott’s e-mail address, his father said.
There was no note accompanying the news release and the family thought flotilla passengers were unable to use their electronic devices.
The elder Hamann said he was unsure what the e-mail meant but hoped his son was able to send it or have someone send it on his behalf.
Rubinson, a retired American expatriate living in France, and Scott Hamann, the executive producer of Harbor Light Films, worked together on other video projects before deciding to document the Free Gaza flotilla.
“WitnessGaza.com is a new website which is working with Free Gaza so that all of the live, up-to-date information can be seen from one place by the world,” Rubinson said.
The site includes links to YouTube videos, Twitter feeds, Facebook updates and Flicker photos related to the ongoing standoff between the Israeli military and Gaza residents.
Before the ships set sail from waters off Cyprus on Sunday, Israel had urged the flotilla not to try to breach its blockade and offered to transfer some of the cargo to Gaza from an Israeli port, following a security inspection.
The flotilla of three cargo ships and three passenger ships carrying 10,000 tons of aid and 700 activists was transporting items that Israel bars from reaching Gaza, such as cement and other building materials.
“The boat Scott was on was flying an American flag,” Rubinson said by phone Monday night.
“We’ve been besieging the American consulate with calls for 12 hours,” Rubinson said.
At press time, neither Rubinson nor Hamann’s family had heard from Hamann.
“Another flotilla will be leaving in a couple days,” Rubinson said of the Free Gaza movement.
“We’re going to keep sending boats until we break the blockade.”
Staff Writer Ann S. Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at: akim@pressherald.com
Staff Writer Avery Yale Kamila can be contacted at 791-6297 or at: akamila@pressherald.com
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