Israeli forces intercept a Gaza-bound aid flotilla from Turkey, with activists reporting boarding by military vessels in international waters.
JERUSALEM: Israeli forces were intercepting a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on Monday after it sailed from Turkey last week, in the latest attempt to breach Israel’s blockade of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
The Global Sumud Flotilla is the latest of numerous attempts since the beginning of the Gaza war to deliver aid to the Palestinian territory by sea, and the second within a month, with a previous convoy intercepted by Israeli forces on April 30.
“Global Sumud Flotilla is under attack!” the flotilla wrote on X, saying four Israeli warships had approached their vessels.
“Military vessels are currently intercepting our fleet and IOF forces are currently boarding the first of our boats in broad daylight,” it said, with the flotilla tracker showing several vessels intercepted west of Cyprus.
“We demand safe passage for our legal, non-violent humanitarian mission. Governments must act now to stop these illegal acts or piracy meant to maintain Israel’s genocidal siege on Gaza.
“Normalisation of the occupation’s violence is a threat to us all.”
Around 50 ships had departed from southwestern Turkey on Thursday as part of the flotilla.
Earlier on Monday, Israel vowed to prevent the convoy from reaching Gaza.
“Once again, a provocation for the sake of provocation: another so-called ‘humanitarian aid flotilla’ with no humanitarian aid,” the foreign ministry posted on X.
“This time, two violent Turkish groups — Mavi Marmara and IHH, the latter designated as a terrorist organisation — are part of the provocation,” the ministry said, vowing not to allow any breach of the Israeli blockade on Gaza.
“Israel calls on all participants in this provocation to change course and turn back immediately,” it said.
Flotilla serves ‘Hamas’
“We are sure that at least two to three boats” have been stopped, Gorkem Duru, a member of the Turkey branch of the Global Sumud Flotilla, who is not on board, told AFP.
“But some of them continue” towards Gaza, Duru said, adding that “communication links with the ships were cut off”.
The Israeli foreign ministry said the aim of the flotilla was to “serve Hamas, to divert attention from Hamas’s refusal to disarm, and to obstruct progress on President Trump’s peace plan.”
Under the ceasefire plan proposed by President Donald Trump, which took effect in October and has largely halted the fighting in Gaza, the territory is to be fully demilitarised, including the disarmament of Hamas.
The ministry rejected claims that Gaza was facing aid shortages.
“The Gaza Strip is flooded with aid. Since October alone, more than 1.58 million tons of humanitarian aid and thousands of tons of medical supplies have entered Gaza,” it said.
Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.
During the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the territory has suffered severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential supplies, with Israel at times halting aid deliveries entirely.
The previous flotilla attempt was intercepted in international waters off Greece, with most activists expelled to Europe.
But Israeli forces arrested two of them — Spanish national of Palestinian origin Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila — and brought them to Israel for questioning.
The pair were detained in a prison in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon before being deported several days later.
Dozens of other activists were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released.
Rights groups said the arrests of Abu Keshek and Avila were illegal and that the men suffered abuse while in Israeli detention.
Israeli authorities have rejected the abuse allegations but filed no charges against the pair.
