Gaza flotilla organisers say 211 activists 'kidnapped' by Israel

Organisers of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on Thursday said Israel’s army had “kidnapped” 211 activists, including a Paris city councillor, in a raid in international waters off Greece.

Helene Coron, a spokeswoman for the French contingent of Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), told an online news conference that the operation had taken place near the Greek island of Crete, at an “unprecedented” distance from the Gaza coast.

Yasmine Scola, an activist on board the flotilla, said her colleagues had been “kidnapped” by Israel. Israel’s foreign ministry had earlier put the number of those detained at 175.

Former Jamaat-i-Islami senator Mushtaq Ahmad was also a part of the flotilla mission. But it was not immediately clear if he was among those taken into Israeli custody.

Coron said those intercepted included Paris Communist local councillor Raphaelle Primet and another 10 French nationals.

“We don’t have the information for the other nationalities, but the boats were mixed in terms of nationality, so there were crew members from all 48 delegations,” she said.

Rome, in a government statement, called for the immediate release of “all the unlawfully detained Italians”.

Some ships still on route

The organisers of the latest flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists seeking to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza announced early on Thursday that their boats had been surrounded by Israeli military ships while off the coast of Crete.

“At the time of publishing this statement (06:30am Paris time, 04:30 GMT), at least 22 of the flotilla’s 58 boats have been stormed by Israeli forces in complete violation of international law,” the GSF said in a statement.

According to an AFP verification, based on tracking data from the organisers, the boats were intercepted in the Greek exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Around thirty boats from the flotilla are still en route, most now in Greek territorial waters south of Crete, according to the same source.

Coron said the operation had taken place over 1,000 kilometres from the Gaza Strip. The longest such operation to date had been 185 kilometres in June 2025, she said.

Israel controls all entry points to Gaza, and has been accused by the United Nations and foreign NGOs of strangling the flow of goods into the territory, causing shortages since the start of the war in October 2023.

The flotilla, made up of more than 50 boats, set sail in recent weeks from Marseille in France, Barcelona in Spain and Syracuse in Italy.

Overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, the GSF said its boats had been “illegally surrounded” by Israeli vessels.

“Communications with 11 vessels have been lost,” the organisation added. The flotilla is currently off the coast of Greece, near Crete, according to the organisation’s live tracking on its website.

“Our boats were approached by military speedboats, self-identified as ‘Israel’, pointing lasers and semi-automatic assault weapons, ordering participants to the front of the boats and to get on their hands and knees,” the organisation added.

“Boat communications are being jammed and a SOS was issued.”

A Greek coastguard source told AFP it had responded to a distress signal from the flotilla, but once its patrol boat reached the area, it was told that no assistance was required.

Meanwhile, Ahmad, in a video message posted on his X account overnight, also confirmed that the flotilla had come under attack.

“The Israeli terrorist army has captured 11 of our boats; we have been attacked in international waters by drones and the navy,” the former senator said.

He called on the international community to “wake up” and called on people to “take to the streets and raise their voice for Palestine”.

Last year, Ahmad led the Pakistani delegation on the 45-vessel GSF. However, as it approached Gaza, Israeli forces intercepted it, detaining the activists on board before deporting them. He was detained in Israel for five days before being deported to Jordan.

Israel weaponising access to water in Gaza: MSF

Meanwhile, according to a report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Israeli authorities have used access to water as a “weapon against Palestinians, systematically depriving people in Gaza, Palestine, of water in a campaign of collective punishment”.

MSF, in a statement, said that the “deliberate denial of water from Palestinians is an integral part of Israel’s genocide”.

“After the local authorities, MSF is the largest producer and a main distributor of drinking water in Gaza, yet between May and November 2025, one in every five of our water distributions ran dry as our trucks were unable to carry sufficient water for all the people who required it,” the organisation said.

Due to the Israeli military’s displacement orders, MSF teams were unable to reach areas where it previously provided water, the statement said.

It added that around “one-third” of MSF’s requests to “bring in critical water and sanitation supplies have been rejected or left unanswered”.

“These supplies include water desalination units, pumps, chlorine and other chemicals to treat water, water tanks, insect repellent, and latrines,” it said.

MSF warned that the consequences of the deprivation could be “far-reaching on people’s health, hygiene, and dignity”.