Israeli forces raid Global Sumud Flotilla boats in international waters

Israeli military forces have intercepted boats travelling with the Global Sumud Flotilla, using drones, communications jamming technology and armed raiding parties to halt the humanitarian fleet in the middle of the Mediterranean as it heads to Gaza, according to organisers and Israeli media.

“Our boats were approached by military speedboats, self-identified as ‘Israel’, pointing lasers and semiautomatic assault weapons, ordering participants to the front of the boats and to get on their hands and knees,” the Global Sumud Flotilla aid mission said on Thursday.

According to the organisation’s Flotilla Tracker map, 22 boats have been intercepted by the Israeli military while 36 are still sailing towards Gaza.

“Israeli military boats have illegally surrounded the flotilla in international waters and threatened kidnapping and violence,” the flotilla said in a post on social media. “Governments must act now to protect the flotilla.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the activists on the intercepted boats would be taken to Greece.

“In coordination with the Greek government, the civilians who were transferred from the flotilla vessels to the Israeli vessel will be brought ashore in Greece in the coming hours,” Saar wrote on social media, thanking the Greek government “for its willingness to receive the flotilla participants”.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said in a post on social media that the flotilla was “stopped before reaching our area” and Israeli soldiers were acting with “determination dealing with a group of delusional attention-seeking agitators”.

Gur Tsabar, a spokesperson for the Global Sumud Flotilla, described Israel’s boarding of its vessels as “a straight-up attack on unarmed civilian boats in international waters”.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Toronto, Canada, Tsabar said the Israeli operation was taking place “hundreds of miles from Israel” and the flotilla was “surrounded and threatened at gunpoint”.

“This is illegal under international law. Israel has no jurisdiction in these waters. Boarding these boats amounts to illegal detention – potentially kidnapping on the high seas,” Tsabar said.

“It’s critical that all governments act now. Every government has an obligation to protect the more than 400 civilians on board and to uphold international law. Silence in this moment is absolute complicity.”

‘We’ve lost communication with many of our boats’

Tariq Ra’ouf, a writer and activist who is on board one of the flotilla’s vessels, told Al Jazeera how the fleet was surrounded by large Israeli military ships from which rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) were then deployed.

“From those military ships, a bunch of smaller military RIBs began surrounding many of our vessels. Drones have been surrounding us and flashing us with lights. And we’ve been getting messages from the Israeli military through our radio, saying that we are breaking international law and that we need to stop,” Ra’ouf said.

The Israeli operation unfolded over several hours, Ra’ouf said, adding that the flotilla was travelling to Crete in international waters when Israel’s naval raid began.

“We’ve lost communication with many of our boats,” Ra’ouf said.

He told Al Jazeera that the flotilla’s communications were jammed by the Israeli military playing music over radio channels as “some sort of psychological warfare tactic”.

“We are in international waters, and so this is a really, truly unprecedented move from Israel because we are nowhere near Gaza,” Ra’ouf added.

Al Jazeera’s Jack Barton, reporting from Amman, Jordan, said unnamed Israeli military sources have been sharing details of the naval raid with Israeli media.

“One source within the military [is] saying the aim was to surprise the flotilla by striking so far from Gaza,” Barton said.

The flotilla is estimated to be about 600 nautical miles (1,110km) from Gaza while Barton said the previous farthest intercept by Israel of an aid flotilla was 72 nautical miles (133km) from the Palestinian territory.

“So this is much, much farther than any sort of raid that Israel has carried out on the flotilla in the past,” Barton added.

More than 50 vessels carrying activists from multiple countries set sail from Italy on Sunday towards the Gaza Strip in what organisers said was the largest humanitarian aid flotilla trying to reach the war-torn Palestinian territory, where Israel’s genocidal war has killed 72,599 people and injured 172,411.

In October, Israel’s military intercepted about 40 boats from the Global Sumud Flotilla as they carried aid to besieged Gaza, arresting more than 450 participants, including the grandson of South African leader Nelson Mandela, Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg and European Parliament member Rima Hassan.

Detained and taken to Israel, several of the flotilla activists alleged physical and psychological abuse while in Israeli custody.

Israel later expelled the arrested crew members and activists.