More than 200 activists on the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) lost all contact with the outside world on Wednesday night, when they were attacked by warships, jet skis and speedboats full of heavily-armed Israeli commandos. The flotilla participants were sailing just off the coast of Greece at the time – more than 500 nautical miles from Gaza.
Given that Ashdod port – where Israel has historically taken kidnapped flotilla participants and their stolen boats – is several days’ sail from Greece, I did initially wonder what the plan was. During the last flotilla, Israel hijacked boats just off the coast of Gaza in October 2025, and yet its ‘elite naval command unit’ still struggled to sail them the short distance to port.
Embarrassingly, commandos reportedly became extremely seasick on board the small boats, and appeared not to know how to sail. Ultimately, they resorted to the only thing they are good at – violence, or threatening it – to force activists to pilot their own vessels into detention.
But last night, we got an answer. Israeli foreign affairs minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that activists would be unceremoniously dumped on a beach in Greece.
Of the 57 boats at sea on Wednesday night, 22 are believed to have been intercepted in the attack, which began at around 11pm local time. 35 others escaped interception, with many sailing into Greek territorial waters for protection. As of today, all intercepted activists – bar two lead organisers – have been released to the Greek authorities.
Initially, participants had no idea what was going on. Australian filmmaker Juliet Lamont posted a video that primarily showed flashing red lights and said: “We are now in the sight of a potential warship from an unknown entity. We don’t know what’s going on. We’re completely at a loss. Our radios have been jammed. There’s been drone activity… We’re preparing for interception. Safety protocols are in place. We’re preparing to go. Wish us luck.” That was the last thing we heard from her.
It’s no wonder activists were confused. While Israel has illegally intercepted dozens of past flotillas in international waters, the distance from Gaza and proximity to Europe this time was unprecedented, outrageous – and frankly just absurd.
Unable to believe what they were seeing – and hearing, when even a Greenpeace support vessel was contacted by an alleged Israeli official telling it to turn around – participants speculated that the interceptors could be part of another navy, working on behalf of the IDF.
But Israel quickly took responsibility for the hijackings, claiming there was an “operational necessity to act early”.
While most participants were eventually taken from their boats and loaded on to an Israeli warship, some are reported to have been left onboard their smashed-up vessels, unable to communicate with organisers or the coastguard. In a statement, GSF described their situation as “a calculated death trap”.
“After smashing engines and destroying navigation arrays, the military retreated – intentionally leaving… civilians stranded on powerless, broken vessels directly in the path of a massive approaching storm,” the statement read.
While the flotilla is now regrouping – with some boats already saying they are carrying on towards Gaza, and others going to rescue their intercepted comrades – many observers are asking how European governments could have allowed the attack to happen.
UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese said on social media that it should send “shock waves across Europe”. “Alarm! How on earth is [it] possible that Israel is allowed to assault and seize vessels in international waters just off Greece/Europe?” she wrote.
Italy, Germany and Spain have now all called for international law to be respected, with Spain outright calling Israel’s actions illegal. Meanwhile, Turkey has called the attack what it is: piracy.
But given that the rest of the world generally allows Israel to act with total impunity, should this attack really have come as such a surprise?
On the last flotilla, participants who had also been taken hostage in international waters, albeit far closer to Israel, were tortured in detention, with prison guards inflicting extreme violence, including sexual violence, on activists. Considering there still haven’t been any consequences for this, with many governments failing to say anything at all, perhaps we should have expected Israel to be emboldened to break international law in an even more flagrant way.
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