BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Activists on board a flotilla of vessels sailing toward Gaza said late Wednesday that the Israeli navy has begun intercepting their vessels as they approach the besieged Palestinian territory.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, with Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela's grandson, Mandla Mandela, and several European lawmakers aboard, consists of nearly 50 boats and 500 activists and is carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid. It has remained undeterred in its mission to break the Israeli blockade of the coastal strip and reach Palestinians.
Greg Stoker, an American veteran aboard one of the boats in the flotilla, said around a dozen naval vessels with their transponders off had approached it.
“They are currently hailing our vessels, telling us to turn off our engines and await further instructions or our boats will be seized and we will face the consequences," he said in a shaky video posted on Instagram while wearing a red life jacket.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said on X that the navy had reached out to the flotilla to ask them to change course and to warn them that they are approaching “an active combat zone.” It reiterated its offer to transfer the aid to Gaza through other channels. Those calls were echoed by other European governments, including Italy, which had sent a navy ship to follow the flotilla for part of its journey but stopped as they got closer to Gaza's shores.
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed the Israeli intervention and said the operation was expected to take 2-3 hours. He told state TV Rai that the boats would be towed to Israel’s port of Ashdod and the activists would be deported in the coming days. He also said Israeli forces have been told “not to use violence.”
The flotilla enters a ‘danger zone’
The vessels were sailing in international waters north of Egypt on Wednesday and had entered what activists and others called a “danger zone" or “high risk zone." While still in international waters, it is an area where the Israeli navy has stopped other boats attempting to break its blockade in the past and which the flotilla has been warned not to cross.
Overnight, the activists said two Israeli warships aggressively approached two of their boats, circling them and jamming their communications, including the live cameras on board.
“It was an intimidation act. They wanted us to see them,” said Lisi Proença, another activist who was on board the Sirius, a vessel that was targeted alongside the Alma.
After the close encounter overnight, the military vessels eventually left and the flotilla continued on its journey, broadcasting live cameras from many of its boats.
A livestreamed voyage
By Wednesday afternoon, the atmosphere appeared to be more relaxed on board the decks of some of the sailboats that broadcast their journeys through 24/7 livestreams. Some activists held up messages of solidarity with people in Gaza and chanted “Free Palestine!” on camera. Music could be heard playing in the background. Flotilla participants have also flooded social media with videos of their voyage and constant updates.
If undisturbed, the flotilla, which began its journey from the Spanish port of Barcelona a month ago, was to reach the shores of Gaza by Thursday morning, the group said.
However, activists said that was unlikely and that they were expecting Israeli authorities to try to stop them at any moment, as they have done in past attempts.
As night fell, they detected via radar several unidentified vessels approaching them and put their life vests on ahead of the Israeli military's imminent arrival. As the Israelis approached with bright lights pointed at them, some activists were able to broadcast the moment live from their smartphones before tossing their devices into the water.
Israel and other governments urge them to turn back
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the flotilla a provocation and warned them to stop and transfer their aid through other channels into Gaza. “It is not too late,” he posted on X.
Israel’s government has accused some of the flotilla members of being linked to Hamas, while providing little evidence to support the claim. Activists have strongly rejected the accusations and said Israel was trying to justify potential attacks on them.
European governments, including Spain and Italy, which had sent their navy ships to escort the flotilla during part of its journey, urged the activists to turn back and avoid confrontation. But while Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni said late Tuesday the flotilla's actions risked undermining U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent proposal for resolving the war in Gaza, Spain's prime minister defended them.
“We must remember it is a humanitarian mission that wouldn’t be taking place if the Israeli government had allowed for the entry of aid,” Pedro Sánchez told reporters on Wednesday. Spaniards taking part would benefit from full diplomatic protection, he added.
“They present no threat nor danger to Israel,” he said.
What international maritime law says
The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates that a state only has jurisdiction up to 12 nautical miles (19 kilometers) from its shores. In general, states don’t have the right to seize ships in international waters, though armed conflict is an exception to this.
Yuval Shany, an expert on international law at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said that as long as Israel’s blockade of Gaza is “militarily justified” — meant to keep out weapons — and the ship intended to break the siege, Israel can intercept the vessel after prior warning. Whether the blockade is militarily justified and the legality of the blockade is a point of contention.
But the flotilla argues they are a civilian, unarmed group and that the passage of humanitarian aid is guaranteed in international law.
Omer Shatz, an Israeli international law expert who teaches at Sciences Po University in Paris and co-litigated a previous flotilla case before the Israeli supreme court, told The Associated Press that even if the disputed siege of Gaza was considered lawful, “international law paves a humanitarian road from the high seas to Gaza — both in international and national waters off Gaza,” he said.
“If the basic needs of the population are not provided by the occupying power, there is a right to provide humanitarian aid, albeit under certain conditions,” Shatz said. Israel, for example, would have a right to board and search the vessels carrying aid to verify its cargo, similarly to what it does with aid trucks crossing into Gaza by land.