Activists on a flotilla which is trying to breach Israel’s naval blockade and deliver aid to Gaza say they are back on course after a reported confrontation with an Israeli warship in the early hours of Wednesday.
The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) says that one of its lead vessels, Alma, was “aggressively circled” by an Israeli warship for several minutes, and on board communications were cut off during the incident.
The Israeli boat forced Alma’s captain to take evasive manoeuvres, activists say, before the same vessel repeated what activists described as “harassing manoeuvres” on another boat.
Israel has previously said it will not let the flotilla reach its destination.
It has already blocked two attempts by activists to deliver aid by ship to Gaza, in June and July.
The latest Gaza-bound grouping consists of more than 40 boats and 500 people, including Italian politicians and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Thiago Avila, who is on the Alma, said the boat’s devices were disabled during the incident, affecting cameras, livestreams and communication systems.
Lisi Proenca, who is on Sirius – the second GSF ship involved – said the Israeli vessel circled for about 15 minutes and that their communications were also affected.
Activists had earlier said they had prepared for a possible interception after several unidentified vessels, some without lights, approached the flotilla in an area “where previous flotillas have been attacked and/or intercepted”.
The boats sailing in the flotilla had been accompanied by an Italian naval frigate, but Italian officials said that it would stop once the flotilla was 150 nautical miles (278km) from Gaza’s shoreline.
As of 14:43 GMT (15:43 BST) onWednesday afternoon, the GSF said its boats were less than 90 nautical miles from Gaza.
Previous flotillas have been intercepted by Israeli forces around that point.
However, a former Israeli naval intelligence chief told BBC Verify that Israel’s military may wait until the vessels are closer to the coast due to the presence of ships from other navies.
“If I was the decision maker, I would engage them inside Israeli territorial waters in order to avoid escalation,” Eyal Pinko said.
“The Israeli navy has the full intention and the full will not to escalate with friendly navies and those who are on the ships.”
The GSF said it hoped its vessels would arrive on the Gaza shoreline on Thursday morning.
