"The ships that made up the Global Sumud Flotilla - a grassroots humanitarian-aid mission bringing supplies like rice, lentils, baby formula, and basic medicine - had set sail from Spain, Italy, Tunisia, and Greece in late summer and had been crossing the Mediterranean for weeks. The need was dire, the odds bad: Of the dozens of humanitarian-aid ships that have tried to reach Gaza over the nearly two decades of Israel's blockade, the Israeli military has intercepted or attacked all but a few."
"They were 70 nautical miles from Gaza when the first Israeli ships showed up on October 1. Their convoy was moving forward through the night when Israeli military vessels began circling them, jamming their signals and sweeping spotlights across their hulls. "Turn off your engines!" boomed a loudspeaker. "A huge barge started chasing down our little sailboat and trying to ram into us," says Adler. The Israeli soldiers surrounded one of the largest ships and boarded it."
The Global Sumud Flotilla comprised 42 ships and 462 activists from over 44 countries carrying rice, lentils, baby formula, and basic medicine to Gaza. The convoy sailed from Spain, Italy, Tunisia, and Greece in late summer and crossed the Mediterranean despite a long history of interceptions under Israel's blockade. Israeli drones dropped incendiary devices on two ships near Tunisia before naval vessels approached the flotilla 70 nautical miles from Gaza on October 1. Military ships circled the convoy, jammed signals, used spotlights, ordered engines off, rammed and boarded vessels, and later confiscated ships, belongings, and supplies. Participants were shuttled to Ktzi'ot by early October 2.
Read at Intelligencer
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