Activists sailing on a flotilla of boats seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid say Israeli forces intercepted them overnight, detaining the crews while they were sailing hundreds of miles from Gaza near the Greek island of Crete.
The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail earlier this month from Barcelona.
Organisers have said more than 70 boats and 1,000 people from around the world would be participating, with more vessels joining the original boats as the flotilla sailed east across the Mediterranean.
According to the ships’ tracker published on the activist group’s website, 22 vessels had been intercepted in international waters west of Crete, while a further 36 were still sailing by midday on Thursday.
Israel’s actions… mark a dangerous and unprecedented escalation
Israel’s foreign ministry said in a post on X that it was taking about 175 activists from more than 20 boats participating in the flotilla to Israel.
“Israel’s actions… mark a dangerous and unprecedented escalation, the abduction of civilians in the middle of the Mediterranean, over 600 miles from Gaza, in full view of the world,” the activist group said.
Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of a blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.
Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s Palestinian population.
The activists’ attempt comes less than a year after Israeli authorities foiled another effort by the activist group to reach Gaza.
That attempt involved about 50 vessels and around 500 activists, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, and several European politicians.
Israel arrested, detained and later deported the participants, who claimed Israeli authorities abused them while in detention. Israeli authorities denied the accusations.
The Israeli action had raised questions about what any nation can legally do to enforce a blockade in international waters. Several world leaders and human rights groups had condemned Israel, saying it violated international law.
Previous efforts to breach the blockade have also failed. In 2010, Israeli commandos raided the Turkish boat Mavi Marmara, which had been participating in an aid flotilla attempting to reach Gaza.
Nine Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American on board were killed. The last time an activist boat succeeded in reaching the strip was in 2008.
On Thursday, Turkey’s foreign ministry condemned the latest seizure of boats in the flotilla as “an act of piracy”.
“By targeting the Global Sumud Flotilla, whose mission is to draw attention to the humanitarian catastrophe faced by the innocent people of Gaza, Israel has also violated humanitarian principles and international law,” the ministry said in a statement.
Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli wrote on X that Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan had discussed the raid over the phone with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares Bueno.
In a post on Telegram, Hamas also condemned the interception, accusing Israel of committing a crime without accountability and calling for the release of those detained.
The Sumud Flotilla described the interception as a “violent raid in international waters.”
In a social media post, the group said that “after smashing engines and destroying navigation arrays, the military retreated — intentionally leaving hundreds of civilians stranded on powerless, broken vessels directly in the path of a massive approaching storm”.
It also said the vessels’ communications had been jammed, hindering them from signalling for help. Asked about the accusations, the Israeli military declined to comment.
Israeli foreign ministry Spokesman Oren Marmorstein said that “early action was required in accordance with international law” due to the large number of vessels in the flotilla. “The operation was carried out in international waters peacefully and without any casualties,” he said.
Mr Marmostein accused the Hamas militant group in Gaza of being the “driving force” behind the flotilla, “with the aim of sabotaging (US) President (Donald) Trump’s peace plan transition to its second phase and intended to divert attention from Hamas’ refusal to disarm”.
Activists in Greece said they planned a protest rally on Thursday afternoon outside the Greek foreign ministry in Athens, saying Israel’s interception of the boats occurred within the maritime zone that falls under Greece’s responsibility for search and rescue operations and that the country’s coastguard had not reacted.
A fragile six month-old ceasefire in Gaza has halted the most intense fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas-led militants in the Palestinian enclave. But despite the ceasefire, Israeli attacks have killed more than 790 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.
Overall, the health ministry says 72,300 Palestinians had been killed since the war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 2023.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Around two million Gaza residents are still living in ruins with shortages of food and medicine, and only limited aid entering through a single, Israeli-controlled border post.