Israel intercepts Gaza flotilla, says blockade not breached; Thunberg, others detained

Israel’s navy intercepted the large flotilla attempting to break its maritime blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, after the military issued a final warning for the pro-Palestinian fleet to change course.

The Israeli Navy operation, which came as the country marked Yom Kippur, began on Wednesday evening and continued overnight and into Thursday.

Over 12 hours, forces of the Shayetet 13 naval commando unit boarded 41 of the ships in the Global Sumud Flotilla, detaining some 400 activists aboard after jamming their signals and spraying them with water cannons. The activists had claimed that 47 boats were involved in the flotilla, but some apparently turned back at earlier stages.

The Navy’s Missile Ship Fleet, Snapir harbor security unit, and other units were involved in intercepting the flotilla. The six largest vessels in the flotilla were boarded first, with the smaller ones being tackled later, according to the military.

Shortly before 2 p.m., Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the “provocation” by the Global Sumud Flotilla “is over,” without any major incidents reported.

“None of the Hamas-Sumud provocation yachts has succeeded in its attempt to enter an active combat zone or breach the lawful naval blockade,” the ministry said.

Israeli Navy troops board Global Sumud Flotilla boats in the Mediterranean Sea, early October 2, 2025. (Global Sumud Flotilla)

The ministry said that “all the passengers are safe and in good health. They are making their way safely to Israel, from where they will be deported to Europe.”

One of the Israeli Navy’s new landing craft, or logistics support vessels, was seen arriving at Ashdod Port with some of the detained activists. All 41 vessels were also being towed to the port.

More than 600 police officers, along with prison officials and immigration representatives, were deployed to Ashdod Port to receive the detained activists, police said.

On Thursday night, police said that over 250 of the activists underwent a “thorough inspection process,” and were handed over to the Population and Immigration Authority and the Israel Prison Service.

“The operation is continuing at this very moment and will continue into the night until the handling of the last boat in the flotilla is completed,” police added.

One of the flotilla’s boats, with mechanical issues unrelated to the military’s actions, remained at sea at a distance from Gaza. The ministry said that “if it approaches, its attempt to enter an active combat zone and breach the blockade will also be prevented.”

Contrary to claims made by some activists — based on incorrect tracking information — none of the flotilla’s vessels managed to reach the Israeli-controlled waters off the coast of Gaza, the military asserted. Tracking data showed one of the flotilla’s boats, Mikeno, apparently appearing suddenly off the coast of Gaza in the morning, where it ostensibly remained for hours with a reported speed of 0 knots and 0° course, indicating the tracker is faulty.

One of the first boats to be boarded was carrying Greta Thunberg, with the Foreign Ministry sharing a video of an Israeli soldier handing her belongings to her after she was detained.

“Already several vessels of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla have been safely stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port. Greta and her friends are safe and healthy,” the Foreign Ministry said late Wednesday.

French politician Marie Mesmeur and Franco-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan reported that their boats were also intercepted. Livestream footage showed activists throwing their phones into the sea after soldiers boarded a ship.

Already several vessels of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla have been safely stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port.
Greta and her friends are safe and healthy. pic.twitter.com/PA1ezier9s

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) October 1, 2025

The flotilla — which departed from Spain a month ago — is carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid for Gaza and over 500 people, according to the organizers, some of whom Israel has accused of having ties to Hamas.

The Foreign Ministry published a video late Wednesday of a naval lieutenant speaking over a radio to the activists, warning they were “approaching a blockaded zone.”

“If you wish to deliver aid to Gaza, you may do so through the established channels. Please change your course toward the Port of Ashdod, where the aid will undergo a security inspection and then be transferred into the Gaza Strip,” she said.

However, the activists’ group, which includes Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, and several European lawmakers, said it remained undeterred in its mission to break the Israeli blockade and bring aid to Palestinians.

The ministry’s call to transfer the aid to Gaza through other channels was echoed by other European governments, including Italy, which, along with Spain, had sent a navy ship to follow the flotilla for part of its journey but stopped as they got closer to Gaza’s shores.

The sole purpose of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla is provocation. Israel, Italy, Greece, and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem have all offered and continue to offer the flotilla a way to peacefully deliver any aid they might have to Gaza. The flotilla refused because they are not… pic.twitter.com/pLQj1FLIPA

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) October 1, 2025

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed the Israeli intervention and told state TV Rai that the activists would be deported in the coming days.

He also said Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told him that the Israel Defense Forces was instructed “not to use violence.”

The Sirius, Alma, and Adara boats were intercepted some 70 nautical miles (80 miles) from the coast of Gaza, according to organizers who shared live positions of the flotilla.

This was well inside Israel’s declared exclusion zone, extending 150 nautical miles off Gaza, where the navy has previously stopped ships attempting to break the blockade.

Greg Stoker, an American veteran aboard the Ohwayla, one of the boats in the flotilla, said that around a dozen naval vessels with their transponders off had approached it.

“They are currently hailing our vessels, telling us to turn off our engines and await further instructions or our boats will be seized and we will face the consequences,” he said in a shaky video posted on Instagram. Israeli authorities used water cannons against some of the boats, Stoker and other activists said, but nobody was harmed.

Shortly before troops began boarding the boats, Palestinian terrorists fired five rockets from northern Gaza at Ashdod. Four of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, and one landed in an open area, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.

The navy’s interception of the flotilla came after organizers rejected the calls to transfer the aid and vowed to press on toward Gaza, which has been devastated in the nearly two years of fighting sparked by Hamas’s devastating invasion of southern Israel, decrying what it called “intimidation” tactics by the Israeli military.

The organizers had said on X that they remained “vigilant as we enter the area where the previous flotillas were intercepted and/or attacked.”

Israel blocked similar attempts in June and July.

Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of blockade on Gaza since the Hamas terror group seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007 in a violent coup.

Israel said it was necessary to limit Hamas’s ability to smuggle in arms. Critics of the blockade said it amounted to collective punishment of Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians.

Israel has come under huge international pressure over its war in Gaza. The war started on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

The war has sparked a humanitarian crisis in the Strip, with most of the population displaced.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 66,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it had killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.