Israeli military personnel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver medicine and food to Gaza and boarded its boats as it approached the war-ravaged enclave, the mission’s organisers said.
Some 20 vessels were seen approaching the flotilla last night, multiple people on board said, as passengers put on life vests and braced for a takeover.
“Multiple vessels ... were illegally intercepted and boarded by Israeli Occupation Forces in international waters,” the organisers said in a statement. “We are diligently working to account for all participants and crew.”
It said that its communications were jammed before boarding began, which interfered with cameras that were providing live streams from various boats and communications between vessels.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, which consists of more than 40 civilian boats carrying about 500 parliamentarians, lawyers and activists including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, is trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, despite repeated warnings from Israel to turn back. It is about 70 nautical miles off the war-ravaged Strip, inside a zone that Israel is policing to stop any boats approaching.
A live video feed from one of the boats in the flotilla showed passengers in life vests sitting on deck.
It is not clear how many of the boats had been intercepted or stopped. Some passengers said their vessels continued to advance.
Organisers remained defiant, saying in the statement that the flotilla “will continue undeterred”.
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about intercepting the vessels.
Italian unions called a general strike for tomorrow in solidarity with the international aid flotilla for Gaza, while protests sprang up in a number of cities yesterday after reports that the ships had been intercepted by military personnel.
In the southern city of Naples, demonstrators got into the main railway station and halted train traffic, while police surrounded the Termini railway station in Rome after protesters gathered close to entrances.
“The aggression against civilian ships that were carrying Italian citizens is an extremely serious matter,” the CGIL union said, calling the strike which other smaller unions said they would join.
Israel yesterday issued a final warning for people to flee Gaza’s main city, as Hamas weighed US President Donald Trump’s plan to end nearly two years of war in the Palestinian territory.
Witnesses reported heavy bombardment in Gaza City, as Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said the army was tightening its encirclement of the city.
Meanwhile, Hamas was examining a peace plan proposed by Trump and backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A Palestinian source close to Hamas’s leaders said “no final decision” had been made and that “the movement will likely need two to three days.”
“Hamas wants to amend some of the items such as the disarmament clause and the expulsion of Hamas,” the source said.
They added that Hamas wanted “international guarantees” for a full Israeli withdrawal and guarantees Israel would not violate a ceasefire.
l A majority of American voters now oppose sending additional economic and military aid to Israel.
Nearly two years into the war in Gaza, American support for Israel has undergone a seismic reversal, with large shares of voters expressing starkly negative views about the Israeli government’s management of the conflict, a new poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena University between September 22 and 27 found.
The survey revealed that 51 per cent of Americans oppose sending additional economic or military aid to Israel, while 68pc of young people under the age of 30 expressed opposition to any new assistance.
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