TEN countries’ foreign ministers have strongly condemned Israel’s attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla, a peaceful civilian humanitarian mission attempting to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza and deliver aid to the Palestinian people.
In a joint statement released on Monday, the foreign ministers of Turkey, Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, Colombia, Libya, the Maldives, Pakistan, and Jordan said they viewed with ‘deep concern’ Israel’s repeated interventions against aid missions in international waters.
‘These attacks, including assaults on vessels and the arbitrary detention of activists, constitute a clear violation of international law and international humanitarian law,’ the statement read.
The ministers called for the immediate release of all detained activists and for full respect for their rights and dignity, urging the global community to fulfill its legal and moral responsibilities to protect civilians and humanitarian missions.
Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla on Monday in international waters west of Cyprus, about 70 nautical miles off the island.
Organisers said 10 boats from a 60-vessel convoy were attacked and boarded, with around 100 activists detained, including 96 Turkish participants and nationals from 39 other countries such as the US, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
‘The Israeli occupation has again illegally and violently intercepted our international fleet of humanitarian vessels and abducted our volunteers,’ the Global Sumud Flotilla wrote on X, demanding the swift release of all detainees and an end to the blockade of Gaza.
The flotilla had set sail from the Turkish Mediterranean district of Marmaris on Thursday, carrying more than 420 participants.
Its mission was to draw international attention to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and break the Israeli blockade imposed since 2007.
Turkish officials slammed the interception as a ‘new act of piracy’.
Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares condemned the action, stating that ‘no Israeli agent has any jurisdiction in those waters’.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the world should not ‘continue to bow to oppression’, demanding the immediate release of all detained activists, including 16 Malaysians.
‘The persecution of Palestinians and humanitarian activists must end immediately,’ he said, stressing that Israel ‘must face justice and accountability’.
Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim denounced the assault as ‘state terrorism and systematic undermining of the entire international order’.
The interception marks the second such attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla in less than a month.
On April 29, Israeli forces attacked the aid mission off the coast of the Greek island of Crete, deporting the activists on board.
Live-stream footage from cameras aboard boats of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) has shown harrowing moments as Israeli naval forces, including commando units, stormed vessels in international waters using speedboats and communication-jamming technology.
The footage showed scenes of Israeli soldiers hijacking GSF boats and kidnapping activists who were on board before the live broadcast was cut off.
The Israeli occupation forces raided more than 40 of the 54 GSF vessels and detained at least 300 activists, according to the Israeli news website Walla on Tuesday.
On Monday afternoon, the GSF organisers announced that Israeli forces had so far intercepted 40 vessels in the flotilla.
According to the organisers, GSF boats were carrying food, baby formula and medical aid for Palestinians in the besieged and war-ravaged Gaza Strip, where living conditions are dire and the population is still being displaced and attacked, despite the ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hamas last October.
With 54 boats taking part, the international flotilla set sail last Thursday from Marmaris, Turkey, in a renewed bid to break the inhumane Israeli blockade on Gaza that has been in place since 2007.
Five of the boats are from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) which left Italy at the end of April, all carrying a name which has a special meaning or tribute.
The Lina al-Nabulsi was a Palestinian schoolgirl shot and killed by Israeli forces in 1976 after joining chants for justice at a demonstration in Nablus.
An Israeli soldier followed her all the way into a building and shot her.
The boat is named in her honour and to honour all Palestinian children who are robbed of their childhood.
The Lina al-Nabulsi was the last boat to be intercepted by Israeli forces.
- Italy witnessed a nationwide general strike on Monday, affecting transportation, education, and logistics sectors, following calls by labour unions protesting at military rearmament programmes, rejecting Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, and expressing solidarity with the ‘Global Sumud Flotilla’ attempting to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip.
The strike coincided with demonstrations in several Italian cities under the slogan ‘Stop Everything’, organised by labour unions and civil society groups to protest at rising living costs, military policies, and increased spending on weapons at the expense of healthcare and education.
Organisers also demanded an end to what protesters described as the genocide against Palestinians and supporting the flotilla heading to Gaza.
In the capital, Rome, protesters gathered in one of the city’s main squares, carrying banners urging the Italian government not to continue what they called ‘complicity in crimes’ alongside Israel.
Demonstrators also waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans, including ‘Free Palestine’, expressing outrage over the Israeli attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla.
The strikes disrupted several metro lines, including Rome’s Line C and Naples’ Line 1, while some suburban train services in Milan were suspended. Port workers in the city of Livorno also staged similar protests.
Among the participants in Rome was Spanish-Palestinian activist Saif Abu Kishk, one of the activists detained by Israel during the April 29 attack on the flotilla in international waters near the island of Crete.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Abu Kishk said some of the boats had been seized during the latest attack, but participants remain determined to continue toward Gaza while solidarity movements for the flotilla continue across European cities.
He described the Israeli attack as another violation of international law and maritime law, saying it forms part of a broader pattern of ongoing abuses against Gaza.
Abu Kishk also argued that the continuation of such operations is tied to the complicity of Western governments, including the Italian government, which continues to allow arms trade through ports and airports.
He called for sustained public pressure to end that complicity and stop the war on Gaza.
He added that participants were fully aware of the risks before setting sail but said morale remains high, noting that many people responded to the call to support Palestine through the flotilla.
- In Greece, hundreds of people with many banners staged a militant rally on Monday evening outside the Foreign Ministry in Athens protesting against the Israeli military attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla off the coast of Cyprus on Monday morning.
Sixteen Greek activists are among the dozens abducted by the Israeli army.
The rally was surrounded by heavily armed riot police squads.
People called on the Greek Foreign Ministry to intervene and secure the immediate release of those abducted by the Israeli army.
They shouted ‘the Zionists are the terrorists – not the flotilla militants’, ‘Freedom to Palestine’, ‘the biggest terrorist nest is the Zionist Embassy’, ‘the Mediterranean is not a sea of Israel’.
There was rage expressed at the Greek and Cypriot governments who refused to intervene and protect the flotilla since the Israeli piracies, off the coast of Crete three weeks ago, occurred within the SAR, search and rescue regions, of Greek and Cypriot Coast Guards responsibility.
At the rally, people shouted ‘Greece and Cyprus are on the dark side of history’, ‘The Gaza blockade is illegal and must be broken’, and ‘the Greek government have taken side with Israel’.
The Greek Foreign Ministry said that it has called on Israel to ‘ensure the safety of Greek citizens detained’.
