Israel has intercepted the Global
Sumud Flotilla, which had been attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, and had garnered global attention as one of the biggest naval aid missions to the Palestinian enclave.
The Global Sumud Flotilla – carrying more than 40 civilian boats and about 500 activists – was boarded by Israeli forces late on Wednesday, with activists on board detained and taken to Israel.
Global Sumud Flotilla had been pressing forward with its mission to break Israel's siege of Gaza.
www.aljazeera.com
Etc…
TEL AVIV—Israeli forces have intercepted a flotilla of about 40 boats carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists trying to break through a naval blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Jebus..even Al-Qatareera is saying
token symbolic amounts of aid, but the Wall Street Journal isn’t? That’s…interesting.
The Israeli navy confronted the Global Sumud Flotilla as it sailed toward them in international waters, roughly 70 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza. Israel’s Foreign Ministry had earlier warned the vessels to change course. Just after 11 p.m. local time, the ministry said several boats had already “been safely stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port.”
The interception follows
a weekslong standoff as the activists closed in on the Gaza coast. Among them are Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, who was also aboard an earlier flotilla that
Israel intercepted in June.
A grandson of Nelson Mandela and several European lawmakers are taking part in the latest flotilla. “Greta and her friends are safe and healthy,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said after the navy intercepted the first of the boats. It shared a video of Thunberg being handed a drink and a coat on X.
The flotilla’s organizers called the interception “an illegal attack on unarmed humanitarians in international waters.” It said it was working to account for all participants after losing contact with several boats amid what appeared to be deliberate disruption of their communications systems. There were no initial reports of injuries.
The flotilla had been on high alert since just before dawn Wednesday, when the crew on one of the lead boats, the Alma, detected unlit vessels drifting toward them in the darkness. Witnesses said multiple boats, which they believed belonged to the Israeli navy, harassed them in an apparent final effort to get them to turn back.
🚨 The ‘Israeli’ navy has warned the Gaza-bound aid flotilla “Sumud” to change course, the foreign ministry said Wednesday as the vessels approached waters u...
www.youtube.com
(YouTube & ‘Israeli’ navy warns Gaza aid flotilla to change course: ministry)
As Israeli boats approached the flotilla late Wednesday, activists carried out the protocols they had been practicing for weeks. Videos livestreamed from some of the boats showed them in life vests, sitting in positions meant to be seen as nonthreatening. Some tossed their mobile phones overboard so authorities couldn’t seize them.
Israel has controlled the waters around Gaza since 2009, when it declared a naval blockade to stop what it said was a pipeline for weapons and extremists. It has accused flotilla organizers of having links to Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group whose deadly attack on Israel in 2023, which left about 1,200 people dead, sparked the war in Gaza. Participants in the flotilla dismiss the allegations as baseless.
Weekslong standoff ends with detention of hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists who tried to sail to the war-torn enclave
apple.news
All I can say is, the IDF must make a mean sandwich! I can imagine Thunberg being quoted as saying, “I’ll have a Pastrami on Rye, extra mayo, light on the mustard, with extra cheese, tomatos, and black olives” ‘cuz the last one was so good, I had to find an excuse to come back for another one?
