A live stream showed some of the vessels as they were boarded in international waters
Al-Jazeera – Oct 1, 2025
The Israeli military has intercepted several ships from the flotilla of vessels carrying humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, detaining many of the activists on board.
At least three ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla, made up of 44 vessels and some 500 activists, were intercepted approximately 70 nautical miles (130km) from the coast of Gaza, according to organisers.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a post on X on Wednesday that “several vessels” of the flotilla were “safely stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port”.
It wrote that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who had been on board the lead ship Alma, “and her friends are safe and healthy”. The ministry also shared a video showing Thunberg.
So far, at least six ships have been intercepted by the Israeli navy, according to the activist group. The names of the vessels are Deir Yassin/Mali, Huga, Spectre, Adara, Alma and Sirius.
Several ships were targeted by acts of “active aggression”, it said. “Florida vessel has been deliberately rammed at sea. Yulara, Meteque and others have been targeted with water cannons,” it said on Telegram.
All passengers on board were unharmed, it added. Before being intercepted, the vessels had succeeded in sailing beyond the point where the Madleen Flotilla was intercepted by Israeli forces earlier this year.
Before the interceptions began, the activists warned the Israeli military had cut off their connection by disabling their devices, which affected their cameras, their livestreams and communications systems that allowed the ships to relay messages to the world.
The Global Sumud Flotilla’s official channels denounced Israel’s actions in a statement, saying the mission’s vessels were being “illegally intercepted”.
“People of conscience have been abducted,” it said on X. “The flotilla broke no laws. What is illegal is Israel’s genocide, Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza, and Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon.”
The statement urged supporters to pressure governments to act, writing: “Demand your government cut ties with Israel.”
United States citizen and activist Leila Hegazy, who is on one of the vessels, posted a prerecorded message on social media stating that her sharing the video means she has been “kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces and brought to Israel against [her] will”.
“I ask you all to pressure the United States government to end its complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and also to ensure the safe return of every humanitarian on this mission,” she said.
Hassan Jabareen, director of the legal centre Adalah, which has represented flotilla activists in the past, told Al Jazeera that “this time, we do not know what Israel will do”.
The activists could be deported within 72 hours, according to the law, or brought to court within 96 hours. He added that some activists could be arrested but noted that Israel usually opts for immediate release.
“If they arrest and detain them, it can lead to a losing situation, because media coverage will continue as long as they are in custody,” Jabareen said.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said the activists would be deported once the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur concludes on Thursday.
Turkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israel’s interception of the boats, denouncing it as an “act of terrorism” and a severe breach of international law. In a statement, the ministry said it was taking initiatives to ensure the immediate release of Turkish citizens and other passengers detained by the Israeli forces.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the Israeli operation was expected to take two to three hours. He told state TV Rai that the boats would be towed to Israel’s port of Ashdod and the activists would be deported in the coming days. He also said Israeli forces have been told “not to use violence”.
As news of the interceptions circulated on social media, protests broke out across several major world cities, including Athens, Rome, Berlin, Brussels, Tunis and Ankara. Italy’s largest union called a general strike for Friday in protest over the treatment of the Sumud Flotilla.
Two schoolgirls raped by an Asian grooming gang in Rochdale were “passed around for sex, abused, degraded and then discarded”, a court has heard.
Judge Jonathan Seely said the victims, who are both white, were “seriously let down by those whose job it was to protect them”.
On Wednesday, he sentenced seven members of the gang to a combined total of 148 years in prison at Manchester Crown Court.
The victims, known as Girl A and Girl B, were “failed woefully”, the judge said, and one of them had been “chillingly” described in a social services document as having prostituted herself at 10 years old.
The ringleader of the gang, Mohammed Zahid, 65, known as “Boss Man”, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for raping both girls on multiple occasions.
Zahid gave free underwear from his lingerie stall at Rochdale indoor market to both teenagers, along with money, alcohol and food, in return for regular sex with him and his friends.
Vulnerable girls treated as ‘sex slaves’
The father-of-three was one of seven Asian men convicted by a jury in June of committing various sexual offences against the girls between 2001 and 2006.
Both were treated as “sex slaves” from the age of 13, and came from “deeply troubled” homes, prosecutors said.
They were expected to have sex “whenever and wherever” the defendants and other men wanted, in filthy flats, on rancid mattresses, in cars, car parks, alleyways and disused warehouses.
Passing sentence, Judge Seely said both victims had suffered “incessant abuse” and had been targeted by “gangs of sexually predatory men”.
Girl A told the jury she could have been targeted by more than 200 offenders as her phone number was swapped in the town, but said “there was that many it was hard to keep count”.
Giving evidence, Girl B said she was living in a local children’s home when she was preyed on by Zahid and fellow market traders Mushtaq Ahmed, 67, and Kasir Bashir, 50, who were all born in Pakistan.
‘Everybody knew what was going on’
She said she presumed various agencies knew what was going on as police regularly picked her up after social workers labelled her a “prostitute” from the age of 10.
Girl B said she was repeatedly sexually abused and “everybody knew what was going on”, and the description of her as a prostitute was “vile”.
The judge said that Girl B was “appallingly abused” by Zahid, who raped in her in a dark cellar on a “filthy mattress”.
He said that Zahid had shown a “complete lack of humanity” towards his victims during his “campaign of rape”.
The court heard Zahid, who came to the UK from Pakistan in 1978, thought he was “almost untouchable” as he brazenly visited the care home to pick her up.
He was convicted of raping Girl A and Girl B, who did not know each other, on multiple occasions.
Jurors also found him guilty of offences of indecency with a child and procuring a child to have sex.
Prosecutor Rossano Scamardella KC told the court: “[Girl B] was in the care system for most of her young life and Mohammed Zahid knew about that.
“It got to a stage where he was confident that nothing would be done about it and he would ring the care home and would also go there to pick her up and drop her off.
“Such was the brazen way he did this that by the end of the abuse he felt almost untouchable. It’s not as if she had no-one to turn to.
“She turned to the care home. She turned to social services. She felt able to tell them at some stages, or other people did, and nothing was done. People knew, authorities knew. And nothing was done.”
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More good news ! 🙂 Jews are demons and the world will know it.
the IDF need to give Greta a damn good shagging
that would stop her nonsense