Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israel’s seizure of activists and aid bound for Gaza, France’s arrest of crew members aboard an alleged Russian shadow tanker, and deadly youth-led protests in Morocco.
Aid Intercept
The Israeli Navy intercepted a flotilla of small boats and detained hundreds of activists who were trying to bring humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip early Thursday morning. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the detained activists will be brought ashore to Israel before facing deportation to Europe.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, composed of at least 40 vessels, launched from Spain in late August with roughly 500 participants, including climate activist Greta Thunberg and Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s grandson. The activists aimed to establish a sea corridor for humanitarian aid by breaking through Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, which it implemented after Hamas seized power in the territory in 2007.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the navy had “reached out” to the flotilla “and asked them to change course” before boarding and capturing 39 vessels. None of the ships were able to breach the Israeli blockade, although one, the Mikeno, appeared to enter Gaza’s territorial waters, according to the flotilla’s tracking website, which listed the ship as “assumed intercepted” at the time of writing. At least one vessel remains uncaptured and “at a distance,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, adding that “if it approaches, its attempt to enter an active combat zone and breach the blockade will also be prevented.”
The flotilla’s organizers took to social media to condemn what they called “an illegal attack on unarmed humanitarians,” saying that the majority of the boats were in international waters and outside the scope of Israeli authority. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed. He called Israel’s actions “another grave offence” in a post on X. “This action also violates an International Court of Justice injunction that humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow unimpeded,” he added.
This is not the first time that a flotilla has attempted to breach Israel’s blockade. In June, 12 activists aboard the Madleen ship—including Thunberg—were seized in international waters and taken to Israel. All 12 activists, who belonged to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, were eventually deported.
Israel has received widespread criticism for the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. The United Nations officially declared a famine in Gaza in August, and the U.N. Population Fund reported in late September that more than half a million people in the enclave are starving. In March, Israel sealed the entire territory off from receiving food and other aid for two and a half months, and nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed at or in the vicinity of aid distribution sites since May 27. According to the U.N. Human Rights Office, most of those were killed by the Israeli military. In September, a U.N. independent commission of inquiry declared that Israel’s conduct in Gaza meets the standards of crimes of genocide.
Although it failed to reach the shores of Gaza, the flotilla highlights the international community’s demands for aid—and peace—in the enclave. During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a 20-point peace plan, which, among other measures, requires that “full aid” be sent into Gaza by land should Hamas assent to the plan. As the world awaits its response, experts expect that the group will likely demand substantial revisions.
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- Inside Lebanon’s Audacious Disarmament Plan by Fin de Pencier
What We’re Following
Yom Kippur attack. On Thursday morning, an assailant drove into a group of people at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester, England, and began to stab them before police shot and killed the suspected attacker. The attack, which took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, left two people dead and three people in serious condition.
U.K. counterterrorism police chief Laurence Taylor described the incident as a terrorist attack and said police have made two related arrests. He urged the public to remain vigilant, adding that police across the country are stepping up security at Jewish community centers, including schools and synagogues. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer flew home early from a summit of European leaders in Copenhagen to chair a meeting of the government’s emergency committee.
Manchester was home to around 28,000 Jewish people as of the 2021 U.K. census. The attack occurred just days before the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel. Reported cases of both antisemitism and Islamophobia have skyrocketed in the United Kingdom since then amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
“This is every Rabbi’s or every Jewish person’s worst nightmare,” Rabbi Jonathan Romain, head of the Rabbinic Court of Great Britain, told The Associated Press. “Not only is this a sacred day, the most sacred in the Jewish calendar, but it’s also a time of mass gathering, and the time when the Jewish community, however religious or irreligious, gathers together.”
Shadow fleet. On Wednesday, French military personnel arrested two crew members aboard the Boracay, a Benin-flagged oil tanker suspected to be part of Russia’s sanction-shirking shadow fleet.
The Boracay, also known as the Pushpa and the Kiwala, is sanctioned by the European Union and the United Kingdom. It set sail on Sept. 20 from Primorsk, a Russian port outside of St. Petersburg, and traveled across the Baltic Sea to Denmark before French authorities detained it off the west coast of France this weekend.
At a gathering of European leaders in Denmark, French President Emmanuel Macron alluded to “some very serious wrongdoings made by this crew.” A French prosecutor’s office said the investigation centers on the crew’s “refusal to cooperate” and “failure to justify the nationality of the vessel.”
Russia’s shadow fleet, which could contain up to 1,000 ships, uses old tankers with opaque foreign registrations to dodge sanctions and collect fossil fuel revenues to fund the country’s war in Ukraine. It is a “closed system where every link—shipowner, manager, insurer, and flag registry—operates outside G-7 jurisdiction,” Petras Katinas wrote for Foreign Policy.
But the Boracay may be responsible for more than toting illicit Russian oil. It was also one of three Russia-linked vessels spotted near Denmark when unidentified drones flew into Danish airspace near military facilities and airports late last month. European leaders suspect Russia to be behind the incursions, though Moscow has denied responsibility for the drones over Denmark. A Kremlin spokesman also denied knowledge of the vessel, adding that European countries had taken “provocative actions” against Russia, not the other way around.
Protests turn deadly. Three people were killed on Wednesday in Leqliaa, Morocco, where youth-led anti-government protests are continuing for the sixth consecutive day as of Thursday. According to Moroccan authorities, security forces opened fire on armed teenage rioters who were attempting to seize police weapons while storming public buildings. No witnesses have corroborated the government’s account so far.
The protests, which began on Saturday in Morocco’s major cities, were organized by a group called Gen Z 212 across various social media platforms. The demonstrators oppose the country’s prioritization of investment in the 2030 Men’s World Cup, which Morocco is co-hosting, over funding for education and health care, chanting, “Stadiums are here, but where are the hospitals?” By the fourth day, demonstrations had spread to smaller towns across Morocco and turned violent as protesters threw stones at security forces while looters stormed businesses and set fire to vehicles and a bank.
In a government council meeting on Thursday, Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch said the government is ready to engage in dialogue to address these grievances.
Odds and Ends
Participants at the European Political Community summit in Copenhagen have discovered another cause for pan-European unity: Trump’s geopolitical gaffes. On the sidelines of a meeting on Thursday, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama pulled Macron into a jovial conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. “You should make an apology,” Rama said, wagging his finger at Macron. “You didn’t congratulate us on the peace deal that President Trump made between Albania and Azerbaijan.”
Rama was referring to Trump’s claim on Fox News last month that he solved an “unsolvable” war between Azerbaijan and Albania. (He meant the Armenia-Azerbaijan deal that he helped broker in August—one of seven justifications he gave for deserving a Nobel Peace Prize.)
Following Rama’s lead, the European leaders took Trump’s boastful miscue in good spirits. Aliyev chuckled at the remark, and Macron patted Rama on the cheek. “I am sorry for that,” he said.
The post Israel Intercepts Gaza-Bound Aid Flotilla appeared first on Foreign Policy.
