An Israeli-owned cruise ship was prevented from docking at the Greek island of Syros on Tuesday and was instead rerouted to Cyprus due to a large anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protest taking place at the port.

The “Crown Iris” cruise ship, operated by Israeli shipping giant Mano Maritime, was carrying roughly 1,600 passengers when it arrived at Ermoupoli, in Syros, at around midday for a six-hour visit.

Initially, Mano Shipping said that there would be a “slight delay” in disembarking the ship, as it estimated that the demonstration would disperse “within half an hour.”

But as 3 p.m. came and went and the delay stretched on with no end in sight, Mano Shipping decided to skip Syros entirely and reroute the ship to Limassol in Cyprus instead.

During the extended delay at port, passengers told Channel 12 news that they had been told by onboard security to remain indoors, rather than to go out onto the deck.

One Israeli passenger told the Kan public broadcaster, however, that when one of the passengers saw the protest at port, “we raised Israeli flags and some of us started singing.”

“We felt safe inside the ship, but the children are a little stressed,” the passenger said.

The protest was organized by a group of the island’s residents who said on social media that the purpose of the demonstration was to “raise their fists in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.”

“It is unacceptable that tourists from Israel continue to be welcomed here while the Palestinians are suffering in the Strip,” the protesters said.

Greek reports estimated that around 300 people attended the protest in Ermoupoli, which has a population of roughly 11,000.

Local outlet Syros Press reported that flyers demanding to “Stop the Genocide” had been scattered on the ground along the entire route leading to the dock, and videos showed a group of protesters carrying a large Palestinian flag as they made their way through the streets. Chants of “Free, Free Palestine!” could be heard in the background.

Other videos showed protesters waving Palestinian flags on the edge of the dock, chanting slogans in Greek.

According to the news outlet, the Syros Port Authority and the Hellenic Police were on standby throughout the protest. Another local outlet, Syros Today, reported that a large parking lot near the dock had been shuttered until the evening due to “increased security measures.”

Before it was decided that the ship would reroute to Cyprus, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he had spoken with his Greek counterpart, Giorgos Gerapetritis, to request “intervention in an effort to resolve the docking of the ship in Greece.”

The Foreign Ministry was closely monitoring the events via its embassy in Greece, he said.

The Israeli embassy was in contact with senior officials in Greece throughout the incident, Ynet reported, and emphasized to them that it could end up harming Israeli tourism to the country.

According to the report, the decision to prevent the passengers from disembarking did not come from Greek authorities, but from the Israeli crew aboard the ship, who feared that the protest would turn violent and endanger the passengers if they came ashore.

Greece is a popular tourist destination for Israelis, and an estimated 621,000 visited the Hellenic Republic in 2024 alone.

The country has seen a rise in antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught in southern Israel that started the war in Gaza.

Athens in particular has seen several attacks on Israeli tourists.

Last July, Greek police arrested seven people accused of planning to attack a synagogue and an Israeli-owned hotel in central Athens. The year before, Greece detained two people thought to have been sent by Iran to attack a kosher restaurant in the city.

More recently, a new Israeli-owned restaurant in Athens was vandalized earlier this month in what its owners said was an antisemitic attack, and which Greek authorities were treating as a likely hate crime.

The Israeli National Security Council’s current guidelines for travel to Greece put the country’s threat level at two, of a possible four, meaning Israelis and Jews are advised to take “increased precautionary measures” there.

Nava Freiberg contributed to this report.