Tunisian captain recalls fear among Israeli soldiers during attack on Gaza aid ship
'These are the cardboard soldiers we were so afraid of. Believe me, they are the most cowardly (soldiers),' says captain of Amsterdam ship
Global Sumud Flotilla, an international civilian aid fleet
ISTANBUL
The captain of a Gaza-bound ship described moments of fear and panic among Israeli soldiers as they attacked an international aid flotilla seeking to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade on the Palestinian enclave.
Tunisian captain Mohamed Ali Mohieddin, captain of Amsterdam ship in Sumud Flotilla, recounts the Israeli attack ⤵️
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) October 6, 2025
◾️ 'They were just cardboard soldiers, as we say… Believe me, they couldn’t even operate the engine'
◾️ 'One of them looked at me with complete innocence, as if… pic.twitter.com/UvxfoTNIm8
Mohamed Ali Mohieddin, the captain of the Amsterdam boat, said Israeli soldiers could not operate the engine after they seized the ship.
“They kept asking, ‘Who’s the captain of the ship?’ and I noticed that they didn’t know how to handle the ship. Believe me, they couldn’t. They couldn’t even operate the engine,” Mohieddin told Tunisia’s IFM Radio.
“One of them looked at me, with complete innocence in his eyes, really innocent, as if he were asking, ‘Who’s going to save us? Who can operate the machine?’”
The Tunisian captain said that an Israeli soldier was terrified when an alarm went off after he ran the engine.
“I saw his comrade; he had peed himself out of fear,” Mohieddin said.
“These are the cardboard soldiers we were so afraid of. Believe me, they are the most cowardly soldiers,” the captain said.
He described Israel and its army as “an illusion.”
“A big illusion that you realize is just hollow inside.”
Israeli naval forces attacked and seized vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla beginning on Wednesday and detained more than 470 activists from over 50 countries. The flotilla had been attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenge Israel’s blockade of the enclave.
Israel has maintained the blockade on Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for almost 18 years.
The Israeli army has killed over 67,100 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable and led to starvation and the spread of diseases.
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