THE Rachel Corrie has been detained indefinitely in Israel with humanitarian activists believing there is little prospect of the ship's release.

Israeli officials have continued to hold over €500,000-worth of Free Gaza ships seized in international waters.

While Israel agreed to relax the terms of the blockade on Gaza last week, campaigners believe the boats, purchased through public donations, will be withheld in order to prevent more high-profile efforts to deliver aid.

The three vessels belonging to the Free Gaza movement – the Arion, the Challenger 1 and the Rachel Corrie – are estimated to be worth in the region of €580,000.

The Arion has been sitting in the Israeli port of Ashdod for a year and its fate remains unclear.

Derek Graham, the first mate of the Rachel Corrie, said that aside from the ships, thousands of euro-worth of cameras used to document the trips, and other electronic equipment, was seized and never returned.

"We are in the process [of trying to get the ships back] but that is done through the international stage," said Graham, who estimates that the Rachel Corrie was the eighth such ship to be tied up in Ashdod.

"We are not getting many answers. They have said, 'We will see.'

"Their logic is that they won't give them back because they know that we will do it again. They are looking at it that if they release them then they are shown to be in the wrong and they can't do that."

However, the Free Gaza movement is determined to continue with its aid missions, particularly in the context of international condemnation raging against Israel and its heavy-handed approach to dealing with ships attempting to breach the blockade.

"The next flotillas are planned for September but the operations are so big you can't hold them to a date," said Graham. "You have to raise the money for the ships and get the cargo for them and then get the paperwork together.

"The more money we have, the more ships we buy and the bigger the flotilla," he said, adding that the Rachel Corrie alone cost around €250,000.

The fate of the Rachel Corrie is unclear given the cooling of diplomatic ties between Ireland and Israel last week following the dismissal of an official from the Israeli consulate in response to allegations that Mossad had used Irish passport numbers in the recent assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

The Israeli press office in Ireland did not respond to requests for comment.