Israeli police on Thursday briefly detained three Greenpeace activists who boarded a cargo ship transporting coal to a power station in southern Israel, a police spokesman said.
"Three Greenpeace activists illegally boarded a South African boat at sea which was bringing coal to Israel," Mickey Rosenfeld told AFP.
"They were arrested by naval police and were released after being questioned," he said.
Greenpeace said the activists, two Israelis and a German, were arrested as part of an ongoing protest by the environmental group against plans to construct a new coal-fired power plant in the southern port of Ashkelon.
The three had approached the Orient Venus boat in an inflatable dinghy and boarded it with a rope ladder, the group said on its website.
Before being arrested, they managed to scale the mast where they unfurled a huge sign in Hebrew and English reading: "Coal Kills."
"This operation was part of the campaign we are running against Israel's use of coal to generate electricity because coal is the main polluter of the environment," spokeswoman Hila Krupsky told AFP.
Israel already operates two coal-fired electricity plants, one in Hadera north of Tel Aviv, and another in Ashkelon.
Plans for a second plant in Ashkelon are to be debated by the government "in the next few months," Krupsky said.
"We have been protesting since 2003 against plans by the government and the electricity companies to build this second plant in Ashkelon. The decision will be made in the next few months," she said.
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