By Alvise Armellini, Edward McAllister and Silvio Castellanos
ROME/ATHENS (Reuters) -Some 20 unidentified vessels were seen approaching the international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza on Wednesday night, multiple people on board said, as passengers put on life vests and braced for a takeover.
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 with medicine and food, despite repeated warnings from Israel to turn back.
It is now within 90 nautical miles of the war-ravaged Strip.
The flotilla organisers said in a statement that they had detected at least 20 vessels on their radar about 3 nautical miles ahead of the fleet.
“This may signal a potential naval blockade. But let it be clear: we will not be intimidated by threats, harassment, or efforts to protect Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza,” it said.
It is not clear who is operating the vessels. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A live video feed from one of the boats in the flotilla showed passengers in life vests sitting in a circle on deck.
“They are already coming for us. Two dozen vessels are waiting for us,” Jose Luis Ybot, a passenger on the flotilla, said in a video posted on social media.
TRYING TO BREAK THE BLOCKADE
It is the latest sea-borne attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, much of which has been turned into a wasteland by almost two years of war.
The boats are now inside an area that Israel is policing to stop any boats approaching.
The flotilla is hoping to arrive in Gaza on Thursday morning if it is not intercepted.
This is the second time the flotilla has been approached on Wednesday. Before dawn, the mission’s organisers said two Israeli “warships” had approached fast and encircled two of the flotilla’s boats. All navigation and communication devices went down in what one organiser on board described as a “cyber attack”.
A video post on the flotilla’s Instagram page showed the silhouette of what appeared to be a military vessel with a gun turret near the civilian boats.
Reuters confirmed that the video was filmed from the flotilla, but could not confirm the identity of the other vessel in the video or when the video was taken.
Last week the flotilla was attacked by drones, which dropped stun grenades and itching powder on the vessels, causing damage but no injuries.
Israel did not comment on that attack, but has said it will use any means to prevent the boats from reaching Gaza, arguing that its naval blockade is legal as it battles Hamas militants in the coastal enclave.
Italy and Spain deployed naval ships to help with any rescue or humanitarian needs but stopped following the flotilla once it got within 150 nautical miles (278 km) of Gaza for safety reasons. Turkish drones have also followed the boats.
Italy and Greece on Wednesday jointly called on Israel not to hurt the activists aboard and called on the flotilla to hand over its aid to the Catholic Church for indirect delivery to Gaza – a plea the flotilla has previously rejected.
Israeli officials have repeatedly denounced the mission as a stunt.
“This systematic refusal (to hand over the aid) demonstrates that the objective is not humanitarian, but provocative. They are not seeking to help, they are seeking an incident,” Jonathan Peled, the Israeli ambassador to Italy, said in a post on X.
The Israeli Navy radioed captains of the flotilla that continuing to sail toward Gaza and trying to “break the blockade” would be considered a “violation,” exposing them to arrest, Tunisian organisers and members of the flotilla said.
PAST ATTEMPTS TO DELIVER AID
At the press conference held by organisers on Wednesday, Francesca Albanese, the top U.N. expert on Palestinian rights, said any interception of the flotilla “would be yet another violation of international law, the law of the sea” since Israel had no legal jurisdiction on waters off Gaza.
Israel has imposed a naval blockade on Gaza since Hamas took control of the coastal enclave in 2007 and there have been several previous attempts by activists to deliver aid by sea.
In 2010, nine activists were killed after Israeli soldiers boarded a flotilla of six ships manned by 700 pro-Palestinian activists from 50 countries.
In June this year, Israeli naval forces detained Thunberg and 11 crew members from a small ship organised by a pro-Palestinian group called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition as they approached Gaza.
(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru, Alvise Armellini in Rome, Tarek Amara, Emma Pinedo and Aislinn Laing in Madrid; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Deepa Babington)
