{"id":804915,"date":"2026-05-18T11:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/804915\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T11:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:11:20","slug":"israel-begins-boarding-gaza-bound-turkish-flotilla-boats-activists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/804915\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel begins boarding Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla boats, activists say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli naval forces, including commandos from the elite Shayetet 13 unit<\/a>, began taking control of boats participating in the latest Turkish Gaza-bound flotilla on Monday morning, according to videos and accounts posted to social media by activists aboard the vessels.<\/p>\n

Footage and posts published by flotilla participants showed armed Israeli troops boarding the vessels and detaining activists on board. They were reportedly being transferred to a larger Israeli Navy vessel before being taken to Ashdod.<\/p>\n

There was no immediate official Israeli military statement confirming the full scope of the operation or the number of vessels intercepted.<\/p>\n

The Turkish flotilla, which includes 53 vessels and some 500 participants, was organized by the IHH, the same group behind the Mavi Marmara flotilla<\/a>.In addition to the naval flotilla, a 30-vehicle land convoy set out from Libya to Gaza on Saturday as part of the GSF.<\/p>\n

The flotilla is an element of the Global Sumud Flotilla<\/a> (GSF), which departed Turkey for Gaza on Thursday on its second blockade run, the first of which occured in April and ended with 20 of its vessels intercepted by the Israeli Navy.<\/p>\n

The group said 10 boats had been intercepted and contact lost with 23 of the 54 vessels in the flotilla, naming some two dozen Turks among those on the intercepted vessels, some 250 nautical miles (463 km) from Gaza. It said there were 426 people taking part in the flotilla from 39 countries.<\/p>\n

Organizers claim the flotilla constitutes a peaceful and humanitarian mission, claims that Israel has repeatedly challenged.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held on Sunday a preliminary security consultation regarding the flotilla, which includes Hamas supporters, an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Foreign Ministry: Flotilla is a \u2018provocation\u2019 serving Hamas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Earlier Monday, the Foreign Ministry dismissed the flotilla as \u201ca provocation for the sake of provocation,\u201d saying the convoy was not a genuine humanitarian mission and accusing its organizers of seeking to aid Hamas politically.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, a provocation for the sake of provocation: another so-called \u2018humanitarian aid flotilla\u2019 with no humanitarian aid,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n

The ministry said two “violent” Turkish groups, Mavi Marmara and IHH, were involved in the flotilla, adding that IHH had been designated as a terrorist organization. It added that the purpose of the flotilla was \u201cto serve Hamas, to divert attention from Hamas\u2019s refusal to disarm, and to obstruct progress on President Trump\u2019s peace plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ministry also cited the Board of Peace<\/a>, which oversees humanitarian activities in Gaza under UN Security Council Resolution 2803, saying the body had made clear that the flotilla was \u201conly about publicity.\u201d Israel said that since October 2025, more than 1.58 million tons of humanitarian aid and thousands of tons of medical supplies had entered Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael will not allow any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza,\u201d the ministry said, calling on participants \u201cto change course and turn back immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a breaking story.<\/p>\n

Miriam Sela-Eitam and Reuters contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli naval forces, including commandos from the elite Shayetet 13 unit, began taking control of boats participating in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":804916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[44895,56665,70,117682,147338,50,253610,103],"class_list":["post-804915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-flotilla","tag-foreign-ministry","tag-gaza","tag-global-sumud-flotilla","tag-israel-navy","tag-news","tag-shayetet-13","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116595280322659308","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}