Activists aboard a Turkey-led aid flotilla surrendered peacefully after Israeli forces intercepted vessels heading towards Gaza.
Israeli forces intercepted a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on Monday after it sailed from Turkey last week, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denouncing the mission as a “malicious scheme” intended to support Hamas.
The Global Sumud Flotilla is the latest in a string of attempts by activists to breach Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian territory, with the last convoy intercepted by Israeli forces only last month.
‘Under attack’
“Global Sumud Flotilla is under attack!” the group wrote on X.
It said “military vessels are currently intercepting our fleet” and Israeli forces “boarding the first of our boats in broad daylight.”
A website tracking the flotilla’s location showed several vessels being intercepted west of Cyprus.
“We demand safe passage for our legal, non-violent humanitarian mission. Governments must act now to stop these illegal acts or piracy meant to maintain Israel’s genocidal siege on Gaza,” they said.
“Normalisation of the occupation’s violence is a threat to us all.”
Netanyahu condemns aid attempt
Netanyahu condemned the latest attempt to deliver aid to Gaza by sea.
He told the commander of the interception force, “I believe you are doing an extraordinary job… thwarting a malicious scheme designed to break the blockade we have imposed on Hamas terrorists in Gaza,” according to a statement from his office.
“You are carrying this out with outstanding success… and certainly with far less fanfare than our enemies had anticipated,” Netanyahu said.
Earlier on Monday, the foreign ministry denounced the convoy as a provocation and vowed to prevent it from reaching Gaza.
“This time, two violent Turkish groups — Mavi Marmara and IHH, the latter designated as a terrorist organisation — are part of the provocation,” it said on X.
‘Act of piracy’
Around 50 ships had departed from southwestern Turkey on Thursday.
Ankara slammed the interception, saying it was a “new act of piracy” by Israel.
Ties between Israel and Turkey have deteriorated since the Gaza war erupted.
Activist Gorkem Duru, a member of the Turkey branch of the Global Sumud Flotilla group, who is not on board, told AFP that “communication links with the ships were cut off”.
Activist Suayb Ordu, who was aboard one of the vessels, told Turkish channel NTV that the activists had “no choice but to raise our hands and surrender peacefully without offering any resistance”.
“We are not going there to fight or commit acts of violence; we are trying to prove the opposite to the world.”
The Israeli foreign ministry said the flotilla served the purposes of Palestinian movement Hamas.
Its aim was to “serve Hamas, to divert attention from Hamas’s refusal to disarm, and to obstruct progress on President Trump’s peace plan,” the ministry said.
Under a Gaza ceasefire plan proposed by US President Donald Trump, which took effect in October, the territory is to be fully demilitarised, including through the disarmament of Hamas.
Aid
The Israeli ministry rejected claims that Gaza was facing aid shortages.
“The Gaza Strip is flooded with aid. Since October alone, more than 1.58 million tons of humanitarian aid and thousands of tons of medical supplies have entered Gaza,” it said.
Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.
During the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the territory has suffered severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential supplies, with Israel at times halting aid deliveries entirely.
A previous flotilla attempt was intercepted last month in international waters off Greece, with most activists expelled to Europe.
But Israeli forces arrested two of them — Spanish national of Palestinian origin Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila — and brought them to Israel for questioning.
The pair were detained in a prison in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon before being deported several days later.
