The Israeli Navy early Wednesday intercepted a new flotilla mission, which attempted to break its maritime blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as part of a symbolic support for Palestinians, detaining an estimated 150 activists who were transferred to Israeli shores for interrogation and deportation, reports Times of Israel.
The Navy’s interception of the flotilla comes a week after it stopped the 42-vessel Global Sumud Flotilla – the largest convoy to challenge Tel Aviv’s blockade to date — and deported a vast majority of the 479 activists who took part in that armada, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and South African politician Mandla Mandela.
The IDF actions come after organisers rejected calls to transfer the small amount of symbolic humanitarian aid they had been carrying with them to either Tel Aviv or to recognised international organisations, who will in turn oversee its distribution to war-torn Strip.
The nine-boat flotilla organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, said to include about 100 activists on one of the boats and around 50 others on the other eight ships, set sail from Italy some two weeks ago.
The interception took place in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, in the Mediterranean Sea, around 150 nautical miles off the Gaza coast. Within 40 minutes, forces of the Shayetet 13 naval commando unit and other Navy forces took control of the nine vessels, including one named Conscience, a 68-meter-long passenger ship.
Due to the large size of the Conscience vessel, the naval commandos boarded the ship by rappelling from an Air Force helicopter, landing onto the ship’s deck.
The other eight sailboats were boarded by naval commandos at sea atop naval vessels.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry blasted the flotilla mission on Wednesday morning for its attempted breach of the IDF’s maritime blockade, stating that the navy was able to prevent them from realising their “futile” goal.
The vessels and passengers upon interception were taken to Ashdod Port for deportation, much like the Global Sumud before.
“Another futile attempt to breach the legal naval blockade and enter a combat zone ended in nothing,” Foreign Ministry wrote on X.
“The vessels and the passengers are transferred to an Israeli port. All the passengers are safe and in good health. The passengers are expected to be deported promptly,” it added.
