The “Global Sumud Flotilla,” which seeks to breach Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, reported on Tuesday morning that it was about 150 nautical miles (173 statute miles) from the territory.
“Today, we’re going to approach the 150 nautical mile zone, which is the zone after which Israel is known to start kidnapping people from boats,” Roos Ykema, a Dutch flotilla participant, said in a video posted to Instagram.
The anti-Israel activist urged her followers to “keep all eyes on us and on Gaza in the coming 48 hours, adding: “It’s about damn time to break the siege.”
Jerusalem maintains that its naval blockade on the enclave, imposed on Jan. 3, 2009, is compatible with international law. It aims to prevent weapons, terrorists and funds from entering or exiting Gaza by sea.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday released documents it said were recovered from Gaza by Israeli forces, establishing Hamas’s direct role in organizing multiple flotillas over the years.
In a statement, the ministry said the documents demonstrate a “direct link” between the flotilla and Hamas through its foreign arm, the Palestinian Conference for Palestinians, or PCPA.
The PCPA, which Jerusalem designated in 2021 for its ties to terrorism, “functions as Hamas’ representative body abroad, operating de facto as Hamas’ embassies,” the ministry said.
One document, a 2021 letter from the late Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, endorsed the PCPA and called for unity with its chairman.
Another document obtained by the IDF lists PCPA operatives, including Zaher Birawi, who has led flotilla campaigns for more than a decade and previously served as a spokesman for the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla.
The Foreign Ministry released photos showing Birawi with flotilla activists, including Greta Thunberg, as well as with senior Hamas operatives.
Also named is Saif Abu Kashk, a PCPA member from Spain, whom Israel accuses of using a front company, Cyber Neptune, to supply ships for the flotilla. “Thus, these ships are secretly owned by Hamas,” the ministry said.
Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster reported on Tuesday that the Israeli Navy was preparing to commandeer the 50 boats participating in the latest flotilla as they neared the interception area in the Mediterranean Sea.
An interception area is a designated zone in which naval forces may stop and inspect vessels approaching or leaving a blockaded coast. In such areas, navies can hail, board and search commercial or private ships to prevent weapons, supplies or other prohibited cargo from reaching the blockaded port or territory.
Because of the large number of boats in the flotilla, the Israel Defense Forces is considering holding the pro-Palestinian activists aboard a single Navy ship and towing the vessels to Ashdod Port, Kan reported.
Jerusalem has emphasized that the flotilla will not be allowed to reach the Gaza Strip.
The flotilla is being accompanied by the Italian and Spanish navies, along with a Turkish drone. Rome and Madrid said their warships would not take part in any defensive or offensive military action, stressing that they were deployed solely to assist their citizens.
The declared objective of the Global Sumud Flotilla—sumud meaning “steadfastness” in Arabic—is to “to break the illegal siege on Gaza by sea, open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide.”
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French European parliamentarian of Palestinian origin, are among those participating in the latest attempt to break Gaza’s naval blockade.
In June, Israel blocked another flotilla to the Gaza Strip. Thunberg, who also participated in that attempt, was returned to her native Sweden and banned from entering Israel, along with 11 other activists, for 100 years.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told Italy’s Corriere della Sera last week that the flotilla campaign “is connected to Hamas, which supports it.”
“I can prove it. It is not an innocent project. Their objective is not to help people or to bring humanitarian aid but to break the siege on Gaza. If you break it once, then you can do it many times,” said Sa’ar.
