Gaza aid flotilla says Israeli forces intercepted 10 boats, contact lost with 23 vessels

ISTANBUL – The organisers of a flotilla of aid vessels bound for Gaza said on May 18 that Israeli forces had intercepted 10 of their boats and that contact had been lost with 23 vessels in the eastern Mediterranean.

Earlier on May 18, Israel’s foreign ministry had said on X that it “will not allow any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza”.

Ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla had set sail for a third time on May 14 from southern Turkey after earlier attempts to deliver aid to Gaza were intercepted by Israel in international waters.

Live video showed military vessels approaching the vessels on May 18.

“Military vessels are currently intercepting our fleet and (Israeli) forces are boarding the first of our boats in broad daylight,” the Global Sumud Flotilla said on X.

“We demand safe passage for our legal, non-violent humanitarian mission.”

The group said 10 boats had been intercepted and contact was 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 from Gaza.

It said there were 426 people taking part in the flotilla from 39 countries.

Israel’s foreign ministry also called on “all participants in this provocation to change course and turn back immediately”.

The previous flotilla departed from Spain on April 12.

But Israeli forces intercepted vessels in that group, taking more than 100 pro-Palestinian activists to Crete and detaining two others in Israel.

In October 2025, Israel’s military halted another flotilla assembled by the same organisation, arresting Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and more than 450 participants.

Palestinians and international aid bodies, along with Turkey and a number of other countries, say supplies reaching Gaza are still insufficient despite a ceasefire reached in October that included guarantees of increased aid.

Most of Gaza’s more than two million people have been displaced, many now living in bombed-out homes and makeshift tents pitched on open ground, roadsides or atop the ruins of destroyed buildings.

Israel, which controls all access to the Gaza Strip, denies withholding supplies for its residents.

Its foreign ministry said more than 1.58 million tonnes of humanitarian aid and thousands of tonnes of medical supplies have entered Gaza since October 2025. REUTERS