‘We are almost there’: What happened on the final ten boats that nearly reached Gaza’s shoreline
A live stream from the Global Sumud Flotilla shows armed commandos boarding a boat, May 2026
Alice Chapman reports in The New Arab on 20 May 2026:
In the past 48 hours, Israel has illegally intercepted all 50 boats that left Türkiye last week in the final leg of the Global Sumud Flotillas’ journey in an attempt to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
They have kidnapped 400 people, forcibly transferring them from their small sailing boats and onto an Israeli Naval Vessel.
Over the course of the last 12 hours, they have been transferred to Ketziot Prison, where videos of violence are already surfacing.
At least 87 of the Gaza-bound flotilla activists detained by Israel have now launched a hunger strike in protest of their abduction and detention conditions, as Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir circulated footage of himself taunting restrained detainees held on the ground after the flotilla’s interception in international waters.
It is unclear how long the activists will be held under such conditions, while several countries, including Turkiye, Spain, Jordan, Pakistan, Brazil and Indonesia, have condemned the interceptions as violations of international law.
Although all boats have now been intercepted, narrating these interceptions as an instant game over for the flotilla would not be the full story.
For a brief period on the morning of 19 May, there was still hope.
Ten out of 50 boats from the fleet managed to escape the melee of Israel’s initial acts of piracy. For a fleeting few hours, breaking the siege seemed possible.