Israel said that the global Sumud -Vloot (GSF) had many activists, but no help.
The fleet, which consisted of 40 ships, was intercepted on Thursday during Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a video with the Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne who ran in what he said was one of the largest ships in the fleet and shows that it was empty.
“When we and several other countries offered them to take this help and bring them to the Gazans – we could facilitate the safe arrival of it – they immediately rejected it, and now we know why: because it was never about bringing help to Gazans, but it was all about the headlines and the social media,” Elsdunne said while he was in the video.
Israel claims that Greta Thunberg’s Flotilla tries to break Gaza blockade has Hamas tires, quotes documents
Anti-Israeli activists on board the global Sumud fleet, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, before the ship was intercepted by Israeli troops. (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the interception and said that the members of the Israeli navy who performed it did this in “the most professional and efficient way”. He also said that their actions prevented the access of dozens of ships in a war zone.
The organization called the interception of its fleet “illegal” and claimed that the participants were “abducted” and were not released.
“After the Israeli occupation have illegally intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla, non-violent convoy with food, baby formula, medicines and volunteers from Gaza-hundred participants have been abducted and are reportedly taken aboard the large Marinium, the MSC Johannesburg,” Said GSF in a statement.
“The intercept of humanitarian ships in international waters is a war crime; denying legal adviser and hiding the fate of those seized connections that crime,” the group added.
Israeli navy soldiers sail one of the boats of the Gaza-related civilian fleet to the port of Ashdod, Israel, on Thursday 2 October 2025, after it was intercepted while it was approaching the coast of Gaza. (Leo Correa/AP photo)
The Meloni of Italy says that Gaza risks Flotilla escalation, potential cessation -the proximity can ‘blow up’
However, Israel has said that four Italian citizens who have been detained from the fleet have been deported while the rest of the deportations are processed.
“Israel wants to end this procedure as quickly as possible,” said the ministry. “As Israel, Italy, Greece and the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem have declared time and time again, all the help that these boats could wear, as little as it was, could have been brought to Gaza peacefully. This was nothing but a provocation.”
Activists on the fleet that have since been detained include climate lawyer Greta Thunberg and Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela.
This will not be the first time that Thunberg has been deported from Israel. She was previously held by the Israeli authorities in June after participating in a separate Gaza-bound fleet and was later sent back to Sweden on a flight via France.
At that time she chose to be deported, while other activists refused. Thunberg told lawyers with Adalah, a legal center for Arabian minority rights in Israel, that she could do “more good outside of Israel” and that refuse to leave “her cause” harm “, the matter Times of Israel reported. Adalah now represents the GSF participants.
Greta Thunberg was held when Israel intercepted the global Sumud fleet. (Hand -Out)
Greta Thunberg’s Flotilla bombed with ABBA music after radios have been hijacked: report
Brian Cox, a deputy professor at the Cornell Law School and a retired US Army lawyer, pushed back to those who claim that the interception of the fleet was illegal.
In a thread on X, Cox pushed back against the former British diplomat Carig Murray, He claimed that Israel was missing jurisdiction.
Cox said it didn’t matter if the fleet was on the high seas and not within 12 nautical miles of Israel.
“Ships can be recorded on recording neutral waters if they break or try to break a blockade,” Cox wrote, With reference to the San Remo manual on international law that applies to armed conflicts at sea. He also rejected the idea that the blockade in question should be temporary, and said that the manual has no provision that is required that it is “short term”.
In response, Murray pushed backSaying that the manual “is useful as a guide to usual international law because it was 30 years ago, but is no more than that.”
Click here to get the Fox News app
