The Israeli Navy started intercepting a Turkish-led attempt to sail to Gaza, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed on Monday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu monitored the operation from the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv as naval commandos boarded the vessels in international waters off Cyprus.
The premier “was briefed by Navy commander Vice Admiral Eyal Harel, and watched our forces take control of the terrorism-supporting flotilla boats that had left Turkey and which intended to break the naval blockade on the Gaza coast,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated.
“I think you are doing an outstanding job, both with the first flotilla and with this one, and effectively neutralizing a malicious plan designed to break the isolation we have imposed on Hamas terrorists in Gaza,” Netanyahu told the naval commandos over the radio.
“You are doing this with great success, and I must say also quietly, and certainly with less prominence than our enemies expected—so, heartfelt congratulations,” he added. “Keep going until the end.”
Organizers earlier confirmed on X that “military vessels are currently intercepting our fleet,” adding that Israel Defense Forces were “boarding the first of our boats in broad daylight.”
The IDF has began boarding the flotilla https://t.co/T3d2PhTd8D pic.twitter.com/TEX6zioPcG
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) May 18, 2026
“Once again, a provocation for the sake of provocation: another so-called ‘humanitarian aid flotilla’ with no humanitarian aid,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry tweeted shortly before the interception. “This time, two violent Turkish groups—Mavi Marmara and IHH, the latter designated as a terrorist organization—are part of the provocation.
“The purpose of this provocation is to serve Hamas, to divert attention from Hamas’s refusal to disarm, and to obstruct progress on President Trump’s peace plan,” it continued.
The ministry noted that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which oversees humanitarian aid to Gaza under U.N. Security Council Resolution 2803, previously said the flotillas were “only about publicity.”
More than 1.58 million tons of humanitarian aid and thousands of tons of medical supplies have entered Gaza since the start of the ceasefire on Oct. 10, 2025, the Foreign Ministry added.
“Israel calls on all participants in this provocation to change course and turn back immediately,” the ministry concluded.
The latest attempt to breach the Gaza maritime blockade is organized by the same Turkish group that was behind the 2010 MV Mavi Marmara flotilla. It is believed to be composed of more than 50 vessels, carrying 500 activists from 45 nations.
In May 2010, the MV Mavi Marmara participated in a Gaza protest flotilla organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH). Nine activists were killed when they attacked Israeli Navy commandos who boarded the vessel. Ten IDF servicemen were wounded, one seriously.
The incident sparked a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Turkey. Though relations began to improve in 2022, they again deteriorated after Israel retaliated for the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre.
