Israel intercepts Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessels en route to Gaza

Ships of another flotilla seeking to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza were attacked by the Israeli navy early Wednesday. The attacks took place in international waters, roughly 120 nautical miles (222 kilometers) from the Palestinian enclave.

According to the tracker of the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s (FFC) Thousand Madleens, the Israeli army attacked all nine ships of the mission.

“The Israeli occupation commits a war crime against in international waters. We will not stop … The genocide must be stopped and the siege broken,” the International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza said on a social media post.

A press release by the Thousand Madleens to Gaza campaign said that in one hour, all nine boats were attacked by the Israeli army in international waters: Abd Elkarim Eid, Alaa Al-Najar, Anas Al-Sharif, Gaza Sunbird, Leila Khaled, Milad, Soul of My Soul, Um Saad and Conscience. The vessels and the activists are transferred to an Israeli port, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on X, adding that they “are expected to be deported promptly.”

“We confirm that three vessels, Gaza Sunbird, Alaa Al-Najjar and Anas Al Sharif, have been attacked and illegally intercepted by the Israeli military at 04:34 a.m., 220 km off the coast of Gaza,” the coalition said earlier. A livestream on the coalition’s YouTube channel showed several Israeli soldiers raiding the Gaza Sunbird. The initiative said the “Israeli military has no legal jurisdiction over international waters. Our flotilla poses no harm.”

The ships, according to the international mission, carried aid worth over $110,000 in medicines, respiratory equipment, and nutritional supplies for Gaza’s hospitals.

The FFC, established in 2010, has launched dozens of missions aimed at delivering aid and drawing global attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Israel-besieged Gaza Strip.

The latest convoy set sail after Israeli naval forces attacked and seized more than 40 boats last week, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which were on the way to Gaza to challenge the Israeli blockade, and detained more than 450 activists on board. Most of them have been deported.

Israel, as the occupying power, has attacked Gaza-bound ships, seized their cargo and deported the activists on board previously as well.

It has maintained a blockade on Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for nearly 18 years and further tightened the siege in March when it closed border crossings and blocked food and medicine deliveries, pushing the enclave into famine.

Since October 2023, Israeli bombardments have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable. Negotiations to end the war, according to a 20-point plan unveiled by US President Donald Trump, are underway in Egypt.