The Global Sumud Flotilla coalition said the Israeli navy began encircling its fleet off Cyprus on Monday morning, four days after the boats departed Marmaris, Turkey, en route to Gaza.
Footage circulating on social media confirms at least one violent takeover, depicting a commando unit boarding a humanitarian boat. The video clip ends with a soldier striking the activist’s hand-held camera. Live feeds from other vessels indicate multiple simultaneous hijackings, including the boat Holy Blue, which lost connection at 11:28 am local time (09:28 UTC) after a military speedboat appeared on its stream roughly 250 nautical miles off Gaza.
Earlier in April, Israeli naval forces seized over 20 ships of the same flotilla near Crete, arresting 181 participants, who were later released on the island after some were brutalized in Israeli custody. Two activists, Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek, were abducted to Israel where they reported being tortured in prolonged detention. The two were later deported and banned from re-entering Israel.
After the partial interception in April, over 500 people continued sailing to Gaza on 54 boats carrying humanitarian aid. Israel imposed an embargo on the enclave in 2007, and turned it into a total siege in 2003. According to the UN, the denial of food, medicine, and other essentials have amounted to acts of genocide in Gaza.
Calls for protests began circulating on social media immediately after Monday’s interception reports, including a call from Italy’s USB labor union for a nationwide general strike to “block everything again, alongside the Flotilla and the Palestinian people.”
