The Israeli military intercepted a flotilla of boats challenging the country’s naval blockade of Gaza in international waters near Greece, Israeli officials and the activist group behind the mission said on Thursday.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, the protest group in charge of the boats, has repeatedly tried to breach Israel’s decades-old naval blockade of Gaza and deliver aid.
The group stepped up its activity after Israel imposed severe restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza following a deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, which ignited a devastating two-year war in the coastal enclave.
On Thursday, the Israeli navy boarded multiple boats in the flotilla of more than 80 vessels, which was sailing from Barcelona to Gaza, the group said in a statement.
“After smashing engines and destroying navigation arrays, the military retreated intentionally leaving hundreds of civilians stranded on powerless, broken vessels directly in the path of a massive approaching storm,” it said on social media.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to the activists’ claims that their boats had been disabled.
The group also blamed the Israeli military for jamming communications on multiple vessels, “severing their ability to coordinate or signal for help.”
The Israeli foreign ministry described the flotilla as “a PR stunt” and “a provocation without humanitarian aid” in a statement on social media. It referred to the mission mockingly as “the condom flotilla,” and said it found contraceptives and drugs aboard at least one of the vessels.
The group said it was delivering “large-scale humanitarian aid, including food, baby formula, school supplies, and medicine” and has not addressed the Israeli claim regarding contraceptives and drugs. The group also said it wanted to create a “civilian-operated maritime route to Gaza to ensure unimpeded access to food, medicine, and essential supplies,” and to assert Palestinian sovereignty over Gaza’s waters.
In the past, the Israeli authorities have said that flotillas intercepted on their way to Gaza were found to be carrying only limited amounts of aid.
The Israeli foreign ministry said on Thursday that about 175 activists from more than 20 boats had been detained at sea and were being brought to Israel.
The ministry also released a video that showed people it said were activists playing games and doing cartwheels on the deck of a ship, with the caption: “The activists enjoying themselves aboard Israeli vessels.”
At least 20 Turkish nationals were among those detained, according to news reports.The Turkish government said Israel had violated “humanitarian principles and international law.”
“This act of aggression further represents a breach of the principle of freedom of navigation on the high seas,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Israeli foreign ministry said Israel was “committed to the freedom of navigation.”
“Due to the large numbers of vessels participating in the flotilla and the risk of escalation, and the need to prevent the breach of a lawful blockade, an early action was required in accordance with international law,” it said in a statement. “The operation was carried out in international waters peacefully and without any casualties,” it added.
A fragile cease-fire took effect in Gaza in October. The Israeli military controls about half of the territory and Hamas controls the rest of the enclave, including the area along the coast. Hamas has said it is prepared to relinquish the administration of the territory but has resisted Israeli calls to give up its weapons, stalling international plans for reconstruction.
Israeli restrictions on aid have eased over the past six months. In a report this month, the United Nations office that coordinates humanitarian affairs in Gaza and the West Bank said that although major impediments persist, aid entry into Gaza had “surged considerably” between April 14 and 20, compared with the previous week. It partly attributed the increase to the reopening of an additional crossing for goods to enter along Gaza’s northern boundary with Israel.
Israel imposed a maritime blockade on Gaza in January 2009 during a military offensive against Hamas, the Islamic militant group that seized control of Gaza in 2007 after ousting the Western-backed Palestinian Authority a year after winning legislative elections.
Israel has justified the blockade on security grounds, saying it is needed to prevent weapons from being smuggled into Gaza and militants from moving freely.
An Israeli government commission that examined a deadly raid on a flotilla bound for Gaza in 2010 argued that Israel had acted in accordance with international law when its military enforced the naval blockade by intercepting ships in international waters.
The United Nations described Israel’s naval blockade in a 2011 report as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea. Other U.N. reports, however, have criticized the restrictions as a form of collective punishment.
Isabel Kershner, a senior correspondent for The Times in Jerusalem, has been reporting on Israeli and Palestinian affairs since 1990.
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