The Israeli navy intercepted around 40 vessels that were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla between October 1 and 2. It took most of the night and into the early hours of the morning to stop the vessels from continuing their approach to Gaza. The interception of the flotilla began at around 90 nautical miles and continued over a distance of more than 20 nautical miles.
The flotilla activists began their journey more than a month ago, on September 1, from Barcelona. At the time, there were around 20 vessels.
The group was joined by 20 more sailboats from Italy in mid-September and several more from Greece in the third week of September. The flotilla claimed it suffered attacks along the way, including two drone attacks while anchored off Tunisia between September 7 and 13, as well as another incident on September 23 off southern Crete. Due to these incidents, the Italian and Spanish governments sent navy ships to possibly aid the flotilla.
The Spanish and Italian naval vessels departed as the flotilla arrived at a point around 120 nautical miles from Gaza. At the time, it was north of Egypt’s Port Said. Italy urged the flotilla activists, of which there were some 500 people from 40 countries, to dock in a port and deliver aid to a third party, rather than continue the journey to Gaza. In fact, the flotilla’s continued movement toward Gaza came as US President Donald Trump was pushing a peace plan to end the war in Gaza. Italy was concerned that the flotilla might inflame tensions.
Israel used the flotilla's slow pace to carry out coordinated, peaceful interception
In the end, the Israeli navy appears to have carried out a well-coordinated and peaceful interception of the vessels. This was a complex task. The vessels of the flotilla were mostly sailboats, most of them with around eight to 10 crew each. There were larger vessels, such as the pleasure craft Alma and the large historical sailing vessel Sirius, as well as the converted fishing boat Estrella. These larger boats had more than a dozen activists on them. The flotilla had left behind one larger boat called Family southeast of Crete.
Because most of the vessels were sailboats, the flotilla kept to a pace of around 5 knots throughout most of the month of its journey. This slow pace gave Israel plenty of time to prepare. The flotilla also kept its own independent live tracking on a website, meaning that it was easy to see where the ships were. Most vessels would have turned off their AIS tracking, which would have provided data to public ship tracking sites.
There were also live video feeds from many of the vessels, meaning that the Israeli navy could monitor the feeds, just like the public can. The feeds were activated by the activists, apparently to document the last days of the voyage and also to document any attacks on the boats.
The live video feed showed Israeli ships approaching the flotilla. In fact, the first approach appears to have happened on the evening of September 30-October 1. The activists donned life jackets and were ready both nights to be boarded. They claimed to have tossed overboard kitchen knives so that no one could argue they were armed. They also tossed their cell phones overboard. However, before that, some of them caught footage of Israeli naval ships approaching the boats. In some cases, the activists claimed the Israeli navy used water cannons on the ships. The navy also called out to the flotilla and told them to change course. Israel had offered to let the flotilla reach the coast of Israel and unload the aid they were carrying, rather than continue to Gaza. Israel said that it was enforcing a blockade of Gaza and wouldn’t let the ships into the waters off Gaza.
Israel's history with Gaza-bound flotillas
This isn't the first time Israel has stopped Gaza-bound flotillas. It has been dealing with this issue since 2010 in the wake of the 2009 war in Gaza. Much has been learned since the Mavi Marmara flotilla, which was mostly backed by a Turkish NGO called IHH, which is seen as right-leaning and linked to the ruling party of Turkey. With some 400 activists in the flotilla, many of them aboard the Mavi Marmara, the logistics of interception were complex. Israel sent forces to land on the deck of the large ship from helicopters. When the Israeli forces were attacked, 10 activists were killed in the melee. This deeply harmed the already-strained Israel-Turkish relations because the victims were Turkish. It also showed that new tactics were needed.
The interception of other ships over the last years has shown that the activists and the navy have learned. The activists now make it clear they are not armed and don’t attempt to attack the Israeli forces. The Israeli interceptions have also been successful and largely peaceful, considering the complex circumstances of boarding a boat at night. Israel prefers to take action at night historically.
A lesson of the Sumud Flotilla is that activists were able to coordinate a large effort. They got a lot of media coverage, with some 2.5 million people watching the live camera feeds as the group approached Israel. In addition, there were large protests in Turkey, Italy, and other countries backing the flotilla. The activists included politicians and other figures from various countries.
Israel has portrayed the flotilla activists as both attention-seeking “selfie” types, as well as claiming that the flotilla may be linked to people who have links to organizations that may be linked to Hamas. However, most of the claims of links to Hamas have not been proven, such as assertions that the ships were owned by a “front” company.
This lack of clarity is not helpful for the public because ship ownership is not that complicated to figure out. The flotilla published all the MMSI numbers and names of all the vessels and their location in real-time throughout the journey. As such, the activists attempted to be transparent.
Have the activists achieved their goals?
The activists may believe they succeeded by raising awareness. Their journey wasted more fuel and supplies than the ships were likely to be able to bring to Gaza. This is because all the people on board had to be fed. Moving aid by sailboat is not an efficient way to move aid. In fact, using sailboats for anything except recreation is not usually a good way of using them. There is, perhaps, one exception. The evacuation of Dunkirk was completed with small pleasure craft, many of them between 30-100 feet.
Overall, the flotilla may be seen as a success by its organizers. It is also a success for Israel’s navy. As such, these victories by both sides can be seen to reflect well on both. The activists didn’t use violence or even try to escape the navy, according to the initial reports. The boats sailed on a direct course, rather than trying to break off into groups and evade capture.
The navy seems to have been able to corral them with relative ease, using a variety of ships that the Israeli navy has access to. According to a video from the activists on the flotilla published on social media, the Israeli navy appeared to use patrol boats and also smaller craft, as well as a larger modern logistics support vessel.