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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, according to organisers and Israeli media.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur boats were approached by military speedboats, self-identified as \u2018Israel\u2019, pointing lasers and semi-automatic assault weapons, ordering participants to the front of the boats and to get on their hands and knees,\u201d the Global Sumud Flotilla aid mission said on Thursday.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cIsraeli military boats have illegally surrounded the flotilla in international waters and threatened kidnapping and violence,\u201d the flotilla said in a post on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cCommunication with 11 vessels have been lost and Israeli media claims that 7 boats have been intercepted. Governments must act now to protect the flotilla.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel Army Radio cited an Israeli source as saying that Israel has begun seizing control of the aid ships heading towards Gaza, and that seven of the flotilla\u2019s 58 vessels had been captured near the Greek island of Crete.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said in a post on social media that the flotilla was \u201cstopped before reaching our area\u201d and that Israeli soldiers were acting with \u201cdetermination dealing with a group of delusional attention-seeking agitators\u201d.<\/p>\n Gur Tsabar, a spokesperson for the Global Sumud Flotilla, described Israel\u2019s boarding of its vessels as \u201ca straight-up attack on unarmed civilian boats in international waters\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking to Al Jazeera from Toronto, Canada, Tsabar said the sea assault was taking place \u201chundreds of miles from Israel\u201d, with the flotilla being \u201csurrounded and threatened at gunpoint\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is illegal under international law. Israel has no jurisdiction in these waters. Boarding these boats amounts to illegal detention \u2013 potentially kidnapping on the high seas,\u201d said Tsabar.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s critical that all governments act now. Every government has an obligation to protect the over 400 civilians on board and to uphold international law. Silence in this moment is absolute complicity.\u201d<\/p>\n Tariq Ra\u2019ouf, a writer and activist who is on board one of the flotilla\u2019s vessels, told Al Jazeera how the fleet was surrounded by large Israeli military ships from which rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) were then deployed.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom 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\u2019ve been getting messages from the Israeli military through our radio, saying that we are breaking international law and that we need to stop,\u201d Ra\u2019ouf said.<\/p>\n The Israeli operation unfolded over several hours, Ra\u2019ouf said, adding that the flotilla was travelling to Crete in international waters when Israel\u2019s naval raid began.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve lost communication with many of our boats,\u201d Ra\u2019ouf said.<\/p>\n He told Al Jazeera that the flotilla\u2019s communications were jammed by the Israeli military playing music over radio channels as \u201csome sort of psychological warfare tactic\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in international waters, and so this is a really, truly, unprecedented move from Israel, because we are nowhere near Gaza,\u201d Ra\u2019ouf added.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Jack Barton, reporting from Amman, Jordan, said anonymous Israeli military sources have been sharing details of the naval raid with Israel\u2019s media.<\/p>\n \u201cOne source within the military [is] saying the aim was to surprise the flotilla by striking so far from Gaza,\u201d Barton said.<\/p>\n The flotilla is estimated to be some 600 nautical miles from Gaza (1,111 km), while Barton said the previous furthest intercept by Israel of an aid flotilla was 72 nautical miles (133km) from the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n \u201cSo this is much, much further than any sort of raid that Israel has carried out on the flotilla in the past,\u201d Barton added.<\/p>\n 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 attempting to reach the war-torn Palestinian territory, where Israel\u2019s genocidal war has killed 72,599 people and injured 172,411.<\/p>\n Last October, Israel\u2019s military intercepted some 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.<\/p>\n Detained and taken to Israel, several of the flotilla activists alleged physical and psychological abuse while in Israeli custody.<\/p>\n Israel later expelled the arrested crew members and activists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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, according to organisers and Israeli media. \u201cOur boats were approached by military speedboats, self-identified as \u2018Israel\u2019, pointing lasers and semi-automatic assault weapons, ordering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018We\u2019ve lost communication with many of our boats\u2019<\/h3>\n
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