Crews detained as Israel intercepts Gaza aid flotilla near Crete, activists say

Elena Bacatoros, Associated Press

Activists sailing on dozens of boats attempting to break Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid say Israeli forces intercepted them overnight, detaining the crews while the flotilla was sailing hundreds of miles from Gaza near the Greek island of Crete.

The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail earlier this month from Barcelona.

Organisers have said more than 70 boats and 1,000 people from around the world would be participating, with more vessels joining the original boats as the flotilla sailed east across the Mediterranean.

Their attempt comes less than a year after Israeli authorities foiled another effort by the activist group to reach Gaza.

“Israel’s actions… mark a dangerous and unprecedented escalation, the abduction of civilians in the middle of the Mediterranean, over 600 miles from Gaza, in full view of the world,” the group said.

Israel’s foreign ministry said in a post on X that it was taking about 175 activists from more than 20 boats participating in the flotilla to Israel.

According to the ships’ tracker published on the activist group’s website, 22 vessels had been intercepted in international waters west of Crete, and 36 others were still sailing by mid-morning on Thursday.

Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of a blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s Palestinian population.

Turkey’s foreign ministry condemned the seizure of the flotilla as “an act of piracy”.

“By targeting the Global Sumud Flotilla, whose mission is to draw attention to the humanitarian catastrophe faced by the innocent people of Gaza, Israel has also violated humanitarian principles and international law,” the ministry said in a statement.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli wrote on X that Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan had discussed the raid over the phone with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares Bueno.

Activists in Greece said they planned a protest rally on Thursday afternoon outside the Greek foreign ministry in Athens, saying Israel’s interception of the boats occurred within the maritime zone that falls under Greece’s responsibility for search and rescue operations and that the country’s coastguard had not reacted.

A fragile six month-old ceasefire in Gaza has halted the most intense fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas-led militants in the Palestinian enclave. But despite the ceasefire, Israeli attacks have killed more than 790 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

Overall, the health ministry says 72,300 Palestinians had been killed since the war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 2023.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Around two million Gaza residents are still living in ruins with shortages of food and medicine, and only limited aid entering through a single, Israeli-controlled border post.

Flotilla organisers have said they hope their latest attempt to reach Gaza will help highlight the living conditions endured by Palestinians in the territory, particularly as global attention has shifted its focus to the US and Israel’s war against Iran.

The flotilla’s effort to breach the blockade last year saw dozens of boats sailing near Gaza, with one crossing the 12 nautical mile line marking the divide from international waters to territorial waters. But all were ultimately intercepted and seized or turned away.

Those sailing last year included Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Israel arrested, detained and later deported the participants, who claimed Israeli authorities abused them while in detention. Israeli authorities denied the accusations.