Israeli sailors seize Gaza ‘relief flotilla’
The Israeli Navy has intercepted a flotilla carrying activists and aid bound for Gaza.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, which departed from Spain a month ago, carried people from 44 countries seeking to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of the Palestinian enclave.
Israeli naval forces boarded several boats on Thursday after the activists refused orders to divert course. The passengers said they were targeted with water cannons.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated that the activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, were detained and transferred to an Israeli port. “Greta and her friends are safe and healthy,” the ministry wrote on X.
Earlier, the ministry dismissed the mission as a “provocation” rather than a humanitarian effort, insisting that the activists had been offered a way to deliver supplies “peacefully” to Gaza but chose instead to approach “an active combat zone” in defiance of a “lawful naval blockade.”
The flotilla’s spokesman, Saif Abukeshek, later said that 13 boats were intercepted and more than 200 people detained. He added that around 30 vessels were still heading toward Gaza, attempting to evade Israeli patrols.
Israel thwarted similar attempts to breach the blockade in June and July.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza has worsened as Israeli troops advanced into Gaza City in the ongoing war with Hamas. More than 66,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, and nearly the entire population has been displaced.
