Israel transfers Gaza-bound flotilla activists to Ashdod port after vessel interception: Rights group

Israel transferred activists detained from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla to Ashdod Port after attacking and intercepting the convoy in international waters, the Israeli rights group Adalah said Wednesday.

In a statement, Adalah said the participants in the Global Sumud Flotilla, including “international solidarity activists, human rights defenders, and medical volunteers,” were being brought to the Ashdod Port following the “unlawful Israeli military interception.”

“Having set sail toward Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and challenge the unlawful blockade, these civilian participants were forcefully abducted from international waters and taken into Israeli territory entirely against their will,” it added.

Adalah said information about the whereabouts of the detained activists, their legal status, and physical well-being “was severely restricted.”

The rights group said its staff attorneys, alongside volunteer lawyers, had been granted access to Ashdod Port to conduct legal consultations with the detainees.

“The military interception of civilian vessels in international waters, the forced transfer of international citizens into Israeli territory against their will, and the denial of safe passage to deliver humanitarian assistance to a blockaded population constitute grave violations of international law,” it said.

Adalah said the Israeli actions were “a direct extension of Israel’s policies of collective punishment and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.”

It said its legal team would “challenge the legality of these detentions and demand the immediate release of all flotilla participants.”

Organizers of the aid flotilla said late Tuesday that more than 87 activists had begun a hunger strike in protest against their abduction by Israel and in solidarity with 9,500 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.​​​​​​​

According to the organizers, Israeli forces attacked a total of 50 vessels carrying 428 people from 44 countries, including 78 Turkish citizens, in international waters on Monday.

The flotilla departed on Thursday from the Turkish district of Marmaris in a new attempt to break the illegal Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza since 2007.

This was not the first such incident involving the flotilla.

In late April, the Israeli army attacked flotilla boats in international waters off the Greek island of Crete. The convoy at the time included 345 participants from 39 countries, including Turkish citizens.

Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007, leaving the territory’s 2.4 million people on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli army launched a brutal two-year offensive on Gaza in October 2023, killing more than 72,000 people, injuring over 172,000 and causing massive destruction across the besieged territory.