The Global Sumud Flotilla, which seeks to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, reported being intercepted by vessels identifying themselves as Israeli while sailing near the coasts of Greece.
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“Military boats approached our ships, identifying themselves as Israeli, pointing lasers and semi-automatic weapons at us and ordering participants to go to the front of the boats and kneel,” the Flotilla explained on its X account.
The organization also reported that the vessels’ communications were being intercepted.
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The arrival of the Israeli ships occurs in the waters separating the Greek peninsula of the Peloponnese and the island of Crete, according to the Flotilla’s own tracker, about a hundred kilometers (54 nautical miles) from the Cretan coast.
The Flotilla broadcast on X a message transmitted by radio from the military vessels to the flotilla’s vessels, where someone identifies themselves as “FDI,” the acronym for the Israel Defense Forces.
“You are required to change your course (…) Any attempt to reach Gaza puts your safety at risk and leaves the IDF no other option but to take all measures at our disposal to enforce the legal naval blockade” on the Strip, says the radio transmission.
It also adds that if the Flotilla “continues trying to break the blockade, we will stop your ships and take them.”
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The Israeli Army has not officially confirmed carrying out this operation, although several local media report it as such and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a message on X showing images supposedly of the Flotilla vessels’ cargo, as if they had already boarded a ship.
“This is the ‘medical aid’ found in the misleading publicity flotilla: condoms and drugs,” wrote the Tel Aviv Foreign Affairs account, accompanying the message with a video and several plastic bags.
A total of 58 boats are part of the Global Sumud, which set sail last Sunday from the Italian port of Augusta (south), with the plan to cross Greek waters to reach the coasts of Turkey with the ultimate goal of reaching the Gaza Strip and delivering humanitarian aid there.
According to the organizers, this is “the largest coordinated maritime civilian mobilization of the mission to date.”
In October 2025, this initiative already organized a voyage with more than 50 boats, which were intercepted as they approached Israel.
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