Gaza flotilla intercepted by Israel on Yom Kippur amid dispute over aid cargo

Israel stated that the worldwide Sumud -Vloot (GSF) had many activists, however no assist.

The fleet, which consisted of 40 ships, was intercepted on Thursday throughout Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

The Israeli Ministry of Overseas Affairs launched a video with the Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne who ran in what he stated was one of many largest ships within the fleet and reveals that it was empty.

“Once we and a number of other different international locations provided them to take this assist and produce them to the Gazans – we may facilitate the secure arrival of it – they instantly rejected it, and now we all know why: as a result of it was by no means about bringing assist to Gazans, but it surely was all in regards to the headlines and the social media,” Elsdunne stated whereas he was within the video.

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Anti-Israeli activists on board the worldwide Sumud fleet, together with local weather activist Greta Thunberg, earlier than the ship was intercepted by Israeli troops. (Israeli Ministry of Overseas Affairs)

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the interception and stated that the members of the Israeli navy who carried out it did this in “probably the most skilled and environment friendly method”. He additionally stated that their actions prevented the entry of dozens of ships in a warfare zone.

The GSF claims that his ships put on assist, together with child method, meals and medicines. In response to a digital request for feedback from Fox Information, GSF stated it will publish pictures and movies of the assistance on Instagram and Telegram.

The group referred to as the interception of its fleet “unlawful” and claimed that the members had been “kidnapped” and weren’t launched.

“After the Israeli occupation have illegally intercepted the World Sumud Flotilla, non-violent convoy with meals, child method, medicines and volunteers from Gaza-hundred members have been kidnapped and are reportedly taken aboard the big Marinium, the MSC Johannesburg,” Said GSF in a statement.

“The intercept of humanitarian ships in worldwide waters is a warfare crime; denying authorized adviser and hiding the destiny of these seized connections that crime,” the group added.

Israeli navy troopers sail one of many boats of the Gaza-related civilian fleet to the port of Ashdod, Israel, on Thursday 2 October 2025, after it was intercepted whereas it was approaching the coast of Gaza. (Leo Correa/AP photograph)

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Nonetheless, Israel has stated that 4 Italian residents who’ve been detained from the fleet have been deported whereas the remainder of the deportations are processed.

“Israel needs to finish this process as shortly as potential,” stated the ministry. “As Israel, Italy, Greece and the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem have declared time and time once more, all the assistance that these boats may put on, as little because it was, may have been delivered to Gaza peacefully. This was nothing however a provocation.”

Activists on the fleet which have since been detained embrace local weather lawyer Greta Thunberg and Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela.

This won’t be the primary time that Thunberg has been deported from Israel. She was beforehand held by the Israeli authorities in June after collaborating in a separate Gaza-bound fleet and was later despatched again to Sweden on a flight through France.

At the moment she selected to be deported, whereas different activists refused. Thunberg instructed legal professionals with Adalah, a authorized middle for Arabian minority rights in Israel, that she may do “extra good exterior of Israel” and that refuse to go away “her trigger” hurt “, the matter Times of Israel reported. Adalah now represents the GSF members.

Greta Thunberg was held when Israel intercepted the worldwide Sumud fleet. (Hand -Out)

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Brian Cox, a deputy professor on the Cornell Legislation College and a retired US Military lawyer, pushed again to those that declare that the interception of the fleet was unlawful.

“Worldwide regulation affords very detailed guidelines with regard to the implementation of a naval blockade and the prohibition on ships attempting to interrupt a blockade. Accessible proof that Israel has adopted these authorized obligations to the letter to ban the worldwide Sumud Flotilla,” Cox instructed Fox Information Digital.

In a thread on X, Cox pushed again in opposition to the previous British diplomat Carig Murray, He claimed that Israel was lacking jurisdiction.

Cox stated it did not matter if the fleet was on the excessive seas and never inside 12 nautical miles of Israel.

“Ships could be recorded on recording impartial waters in the event that they break or attempt to break a blockade,” Cox wrote, With regards to the San Remo handbook on worldwide regulation that applies to armed conflicts at sea. He additionally rejected the concept the blockade in query needs to be momentary, and stated that the handbook has no provision that’s required that it’s “quick time period”.

In response, Murray pushed backSaying that the handbook “is helpful as a information to traditional worldwide regulation as a result of it was 30 years in the past, however is not more than that.”

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Fox Information Digital reached Murray for remark.