Ankara, 02 May 2026 (Anadolu News)

At least 31 activists were injured during Israel’s interception of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters, according to statements from the group.

The Global Sumud Flotilla committee said those injured included activists from multiple countries, among them four each from New Zealand and Australia; three each from Italy and the US; two each from Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Colombia and Germany; and one each from Hungary, Ukraine, France, Poland and Portugal.

One of the injured holds dual Turkish-German citizenship, while efforts are ongoing to determine the identities of three other passengers, it added.

In a separate statement, it said activists detained during the interception were subjected to ill-treatment aboard an Israeli naval vessel for nearly 40 hours. The group said that detainees were deliberately denied sufficient water and food and forced to sleep on wet floors.

It also said participants who resisted the detention of Saif Abukeshek, a Spanish national of Palestinian origin, and Brazilian citizen Thiago Avila were met with force by Israeli soldiers.

One activist described the incident, saying, “As you can see, my nose is probably broken. My ribs hurt; maybe they are broken, too. I’m not sure. My neck as well. They kicked us, punched us, and dragged us on the ground, and we even heard shots being fired at people,” according to the statement.

The Global Sumud humanitarian aid flotilla was attacked Thursday near the Greek island of Crete, 600 nautical miles from its destination, the blockade-ravaged enclave of Gaza.

The flotilla's first ships, carrying humanitarian aid, left Barcelona on April 12, while the main fleet set sail from the Italian island of Sicily on April 26, aiming to break Israel's years-long blockade of Gaza.

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. Israel 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.

An exclusive report from Flotila by former ambassador Faizel Moosa of South Africa

SOUTH AFRICA - Global Sumud South Africa (GS SA) condemns in the strongest possible terms the unlawful, armed aggression in international waters carried out by the Israeli military against civilian vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla sailing peacefully toward Gaza.

The South African delegation currently en route to our port of departure are committed to continuing to join the global mission to establish a humanitarian corridor to Gaza. We are not deterred.

THE FACTS

Members of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) were sailing peacefully in international waters west of the southern Greek island of Crete when multiple vessels had their radio communications jammed and were confronted by Israeli drones and military vessels issuing orders to stop the legal humanitarian mission.

Israeli military seized 22 GSF vessels and kidnapped what is believed to be upwards of 175 activists in a clear act of international piracy.

The Flotilla carries no weapons and no military personnel. Its cargo is documented humanitarian aid for the besieged civilian population of Gaza. Its objective is to deliver that aid and to establish an urgently needed humanitarian corridor.

936 DAYS: THE ARCHITECTURE OF IMPUNITY

On 7 October 2023, the slow genocide of the Palestinian people escalated. Today is 30 April 2026. That is 936 days.

In these 936 days, the death toll has exceeded 72,253 Palestinians. Among the genocide victims are 20,179 children. The Integrated Food Security Phase (IPC) classification officially declared a Phase 5 famine in Gaza.

Despite a ceasefire declared on 10 October 2025, the Zionist state has committed over 2,400 documented violations, resulting in close to 800 fatalities and 2,147 injuries in five months. The ‘Yellow Line’ border which Israel maintains in Gaza has turned 60% of Gaza into a military exclusion zone, displacing 730,000 people anew, while only 43% of promised humanitarian trucks have been permitted entry.

The ‘international community’ responded with few effective measures. No sanctions from the United Nations Security Council. No embargoes. No war criminals were extradited for trial. The Zionist apartheid Israeli state has learnt exactly what it can do without consequence. Anything.

Last night’s illegal assault is the predictable result of a lack of international action. Israel's sense of impunity is born from silence by States and International Institutions who as per international law, are obligated to stop this escalating level of impunity, which is a threat to world order and all of humanity. If this is the status quo, then it is one that citizens are obliged to topple.

THE LEGAL POSITION IS UNAMBIGUOUS

The mission of the Global Sumud Flotilla is entirely lawful. GSF vessels exercise freedom of navigation rights under Article 87 of UNCLOS and customary international law. The vessels are fully identifiable, sail under recognised national flags, and carry documented humanitarian cargo.

The following legal framework is unambiguous:

UNCLOS Article 87 guarantees freedom of navigation in international waters. No state holds jurisdiction

over civilian vessels operating outside its territorial sea. The demand that the flotilla divert its humanitarian cargo through Israeli-controlled channels has no basis in law.

The Genocide Convention 1948 imposes a duty on every state to prevent and punish genocide wherever it occurs. Every government whose citizens are aboard this flotilla carries that obligation.

The ICJ issued three binding provisional measures in January, March, and May 2024, directing Israel to ensure the immediate provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza. These measures are binding under Article 41 of the ICJ Statute. Blocking a humanitarian flotilla constitutes direct defiance of those orders.

Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute defines the starvation of civilians as a war crime. The Israeli prime minister and former defence minister are subject to arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the intentional use of starvation as a weapon of war.

SOUTH AFRICA'S OBLIGATIONS ARE CLEAR

South Africa brought proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under the Genocide

Convention. The provisional measures now being flouted are measures South Africa, Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and the majority of the UN member states helped secure. Silence at this moment is complicity.

Global Sumud SA demands that the South African government act immediately on three fronts:

1.Issue a formal and public diplomatic condemnation. DIRCO must immediately affirm the humanitarian status of the Global Sumud Flotilla and condemn the jamming of communications, deployment of military drones, and armed interception of civilian vessels for what they are: piracy and an act of aggression against unarmed civilians.

2.Engage Greece at the highest diplomatic level. The South African government must communicate directly with Athens to demand Greece exercise its obligations as the regional coastal state, ensure the flotilla's safe passage, and hold Israel accountable for its criminal provocation in Greek waters.

3.Account for South Africa's own complicity in the siege. South African coal continues to be exported through Richards Bay and delivered to Israeli ports, fuelling the very energy infrastructure prosecuting this genocide. DIRCO cannot demand accountability from the Zionist Israeli state while South African resources sustain it. This is a hypocritical and contradictory position that must be abandoned.

ABOUT GLOBAL SUMUD SOUTH AFRICA

Global Sumud South Africa (GS SA) is the South African chapter of the Global Sumud Flotilla, an internationalist civilian humanitarian mission to break the illegal blockade of Gaza. We do not carry weapons. We carry the memory of what abandonment costs a people, and we carry the will to oppose oppression in all its forms.

South Africa did not survive apartheid by waiting for permission to call injustice by its name. Our delegates are en route to Gaza. They are not deterred, and those of us in support of them are not deterred. To our comrades already on the water: we see you. We are coming. This is international solidarity in the face of injustice and oppression.