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(Reuters) -Israel faced international condemnation and protests on Thursday after its forces intercepted around 40 boats carrying aid and more than 400 foreign activists, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, to Gaza.
Cameras broadcasting live feeds from the boats, verified by Reuters, showed armed Israeli soldiers in helmets and night vision goggles boarding the ships, while passengers huddled in life vests with their hands up.
A video from the Israeli foreign ministry showed Thunberg, the most prominent of the passengers, sitting on a deck surrounded by soldiers.
FLOTILLA MEMBERS COULD BE EXPELLED NEXT WEEK
Thunberg, 22, best known for her environmental protests, had pre-recorded a video that was released on her behalf after her ship was boarded.
“If you are watching this video, I have been abducted and taken against my will by Israeli forces. Our humanitarian mission was non-violent and abiding by international law,” she said.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he expected the members of the flotilla to be expelled from Israel on Monday and Tuesday and sent to European capitals on charter flights.
“All the passengers are safe and in good health,” the Israeli foreign ministry said on X after they began to be taken ashore in Ashdod.
“One last vessel of this provocation remains at a distance. If it approaches, its attempt to enter an active combat zone and breach the blockade will also be prevented.”
The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), the organiser of the voyage, said an estimated 443 volunteers had been detained, some of them transferred to one large cargo vessel before being taken ashore.
TURKEY CONDEMNS ‘THUGGERY’ DIRECTED AT FLOTILLA
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday criticised Israeli aggression, saying it showed Israel’s government has no intention of letting hopes for peace grow.
“I condemn the thuggery directed at the global Sumud Flotilla, which set out to draw attention to the barbarity of children dying of hunger in Gaza and to deliver humanitarian aid to the oppressed Palestinians,” he said in a speech to officials from his AK Party in the capital Ankara.
The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said it had launched an investigation into the detention of 24 Turkish citizens on the vessels, Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa urged Israel to immediately release South Africans who were on the flotilla, including former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela.
The activists are expected to be transferred to the immigration authority upon arrival in Ashdod, from where they will be moved to Ketziot Prison in southern Israel before they are deported, said Suhad Bishara, the director at Adalah, a human rights organisation and legal centre in Israel.
“Our main concern of this stage, of course, their well-being, their health condition, as well, making sure that they all get the legal advice prior to the hearings,” Bishara told Reuters on Thursday.
HIGH PROFILE OPPOSITION TO GAZA BLOCKADE
The flotilla, which set sail in late August, is transporting medicine and food to Gaza and consists of more than 40 civilian vessels with parliamentarians, lawyers and activists.
It was not clear how much aid it was carrying but it represented the highest-profile symbol of opposition to Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Israeli officials have repeatedly denounced the mission as a stunt.
The flotilla’s progress across the Mediterranean Sea garnered international attention as nations including Turkey, Spain and Italy sent boats or drones in case their nationals required assistance, even as it triggered repeated warnings from Israel to turn back.
Israel’s interception of the flotilla sparked protests in Italy and Colombia, while protests were also called in Greece, Ireland and Turkey. Italian unions called a general strike for Friday.
HAMAS EXPRESSES SUPPORT FOR ACTIVISTS
Israel’s navy had previously warned the flotilla it was approaching an active combat zone and violating a lawful blockade, and asked organisers to change course. It had offered to transfer any aid peacefully through safe channels to Gaza.
The flotilla is the latest seaborne attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, much of which has been turned into a wasteland by almost two years of war.
In a statement, Hamas expressed support for the activists and called Israel’s interception of the flotilla a “criminal act”, calling for public protests to condemn Israel.
The boats were about 70 nautical miles off Gaza when they were intercepted, inside a zone that Israel is policing to stop any boats approaching. The organisers said their communications, including the use of a live camera feed from some of the boats, had been scrambled.
Israel began its Gaza offensive after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. The offensive has killed over 66,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health authorities say.
(Reporting by Abdallah, Nayera, Mrinmay Dey, Gursimran Kaur, Alvise Armellini, Howard Goller, Alexander Cornwell, Sinan Abu Mayzer Tarek Amara, Anathi Madubela, Emma Pinedo, Aislinn Laing, Padraic Halpin, Jonathan Spicer and Rozanna Latiff; Writing by Edward McAllister, Michael Perry and Keith Weir; Editing by Stephen Coates, Neil Fullick, Sharon Singleton and Kevin Liffey)
