Israel’s navy on Friday night began to intercept the large flotilla attempting to break its maritime blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, according to activists, after the military issued a final warning for the pro-Palestinian fleet to change course.
The Israeli Navy operation, which came as the country marked Yom Kippur, continued overnight into early Saturday morning, with troops having boarded several of the 47 ships in the Global Sumud Flotilla and detaining the activists aboard after jamming their signals.
One of the first boats to be boarded was carrying Greta Thunberg, with the Foreign Ministry sharing a video of an Israeli soldier handing her belongings after being detained.
“Already several vessels of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla have been safely stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port. Greta and her friends are safe and healthy,” the ministry said.
Once brought to Israel, the activists will be deported.
French politician Marie Mesmeur and Franco-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan reported that their boats were also intercepted. Livestream footage showed activists throwing their phones into the sea after soldiers boarded a ship.
The flotilla — which departed from Spain a month ago — is carrying over 500 people, according to the organizers, some of whom Israel has accused of having ties to Hamas.
The Foreign Ministry published a video of a naval lieutenant speaking over a radio to the activists, warning they were “approaching a blockaded zone.”
“If you wish to deliver aid to Gaza, you may do so through the established channels. Please change your course toward the Port of Ashdod, where the aid will undergo a security inspection and then be transferred into the Gaza Strip,” she said.
The ministry’s call to transfer the aid to Gaza through other channels was echoed by other European governments, including Italy, which along with Spain had sent a navy ship to follow the flotilla for part of its journey but stopped as they got closer to Gaza’s shores.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed the Israeli intervention and told state TV Rai that the activists would be deported in the coming days. He also said Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’air told him that the Israel Defense Forces was instructed “not to use violence.”
Shortly before troops began boarding the boats, Palestinian terrorists fired five rockets from northern Gaza at Ashdod. Four of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, and one landed in an open area, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There were no reports of injuries or damage.
The navy’s interception of the flotilla came after organizers rejected the calls to transfer the aid and vowed to press on toward Gaza, which has been devastated in the nearly two years of fighting sparked Hamas’s devastating invasion of southern Israel, decrying what it called “intimidation” tactics by the Israeli military.
It said on X it remained “vigilant as we enter the area where the previous flotillas were intercepted and/or attacked.”
Israel blocked similar attempts in June and July.
The fleet was 90 nautical miles of the Strip when intercepted, well into Israel’s declared exclusion zone extending 150 nautical miles off Gaza, where the navy has previously stopped ships attempting to break the blockade.
Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of blockade on Gaza since the Hamas terror group seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007 in a violent coup.
Israel said it was necessary to limit Hamas’s ability to smuggle in arms. Critics of the blockade said it amounted to collective punishment of Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians.
Israel has come under huge international pressure over its war in Gaza. The war started on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
The war has sparked a humanitarian crisis in the Strip, with most of the population displaced.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 66,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it had killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.