Who Holds the Waterways
Israeli forces on Tuesday intercepted all remaining vessels from an activist flotilla attempting to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, with two boats still on their way to Gaza. Armed Israeli soldiers boarded the vessels Andros, Zefiro, Don Juan, Alcyone and Elengi as activists wearing life vests raised their arms, and soldiers destroyed cameras mounted on the boats. The scene, captured in live footage, showed the machinery of maritime control moving against a civilian convoy that had set out to spotlight the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
The flotilla’s aim was to highlight shortages of housing, food and medicine in Gaza, and activists had been livestreaming the effort as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla initiative. The flotilla’s website said Israeli forces began stopping the vessels around 167 miles (268 kilometers) from the Gaza coastline, and the vessels had departed last week from Turkey. The distance matters because the blockade was enforced far from Gaza itself, in international waters where the activists were still trying to force the world to look at what the blockade produces on the ground.
What the Activists Said They Were Doing
Italian activist Daniele Gallina, who was with six others aboard a sailboat that diverted to a harbor in Cyprus because of technical issues, said he and his fellow activists saw their mission as an attempt to open Gaza to the world. He said, “What matters is not only the aid itself, important as it is, but the structural change it represents. It is also about challenging the collaboration of our own governments with these policies.” Gallina said the flotilla’s mission was “entirely pacifist,” but that the Israeli military’s actions demonstrated how international law was now “openly disregarded,” notably against “peaceful civilian missions carrying no weapons.” He said he and fellow activists remained determined to continue their protests “until Gaza is reached.”
The flotilla urged governments and world leaders to demand the activists’ “immediate and unconditional release” and to ensure they get legal and consular help without delay. Earlier Tuesday, the activist group said the detainees were “being forcibly transported” by an Israeli ship to an unnamed port and warned of “grave and immediate concerns” about the activists’ physical safety after others detained during an April 30 interdiction detailed “patterns of torture, severe physical abuse and invasive sexual violence” by Israeli forces. Israel denied the allegations.
Late Tuesday, the flotilla said 428 detained activists from over 40 nations remained “unaccounted for” because they had neither contact with lawyers nor access to consular help and their families had not been informed of their whereabouts. Israel’s Foreign Ministry Office said Tuesday night that “all 430 activists” had been transferred to Israeli vessels and were “making their way to Israel, where they will be able to meet with their consular representatives.” The post on X called the flotilla “a PR stunt at the service of Hamas.”
The State, the Blockade, and the Price Below
Israel called the flotilla “a provocation for the sake of provocation” with no real intent to deliver aid to Gaza, saying the boats carried a symbolic amount of aid. On Monday, the Israeli navy stopped some 41 boats from the flotilla in international waters off Cyprus and detained those on board. More than a dozen Irish nationals were aboard the flotilla, including the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly. Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin called Israel’s interception of the boats in international waters “absolutely unacceptable.”
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called for an urgent review of Israel’s use of force after Italian activists said soldiers fired rubber bullets at vessels, and flotilla organizers claimed Israeli soldiers fired on five boats during the interdictions, with some damage. Turkey and Hamas called the interdictions an act of “piracy,” while Italy, Spain and Indonesia called on Israel to release activists and ensure their safety. The U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions against European activists Saif Abu Keshek, Jaldia Abubakra Aueda, Hisham Abdallah Sulayman Abu Mahfuz and Mohammed Khatib, who were aboard the flotilla, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called “pro-terror.”
The Israeli defense body overseeing humanitarian aid to Gaza said sufficient aid was entering the territory, with around 600 trucks delivering assistance daily, similar to prewar levels. But according to a U.N. World Food Program report, the number of humanitarian and commercial trucks entering Gaza declined sharply in March compared with previous months following the start of the Iran war, with a daily average of 112 trucks entering in March. That gap between official claims and reported truck counts sits at the center of the blockade’s daily reality: the people at the bottom are left to live with shortages while institutions argue over how much deprivation counts as enough.
Israel has maintained a sea blockade of Gaza since Hamas took control of the territory in 2007 and intensified it after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw more than 250 taken hostage. Critics say the blockade amounts to collective punishment, while Israel says it is meant to prevent Hamas from arming. Egypt, which has the only border crossing with Gaza not controlled by Israel, has also greatly restricted movement in and out. Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel’s retaliatory offensive following the Oct. 7 attack has killed more than 72,700 people. The ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas-run government, does not give a breakdown between civilians and militants, and it is staffed by medical professionals who maintain and publish detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.