Fourteen vessels belong to pro-Palestine group Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) are undergoing repairs at a shipyard in Antalya, Turkey, as preparations continue for another voyage to Gaza following damage that the flotilla’s organisers attributed to an Israeli attack in international waters.
Flotilla board member Sümeyra Akdeniz Ordu told news outlet Anadolu Ajansı that two vessels have already been repaired and sent to Italy.
“We are trying to gather up the vessels drifting at sea one by one,” Ordu claimed. “We are on a rescue mission.”
Ordu said local and international volunteers were working on the vessels at the shipyard, with others arriving in Antalya, and that she was coordinating their work.
Ordu said the 14 vessels in Antalya were part of a wider group, with other vessels at separate locations as recovery and repair work continued.
“The vessel’s mast was broken, surface cleaner and coffee had been poured into the engines, and the hose on each vessel had been cut one by one,” she said.
Ordu said larger vessels had struck the flotilla boats and that knives had been used to cut the sails. She said the scale of the damage made repairs difficult, but volunteers kept working.
During the group’s 2026 campaign, Israeli forces stopped 22 boats from the flotilla near Crete at the end of April. The flotilla said vessels had been disabled and destroyed and that participants had been left stranded.
However, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the operation had been conducted peacefully and without casualties.
The GSF said on May 8 that more than 30 vessels were departing Crete for Marmaris, Turkey, for a technical stop. The movement preceded another departure from the Turkish port later that month.
A fleet of 54 vessels left Marmaris on May 14 for Gaza. Israeli forces began intercepting the fleet near Cyprus on May 18, in a separate operation from the interception near Crete at the end of April.
The flotilla subsequently alleged that Israeli forces had fired at its boats. Israel’s Foreign Ministry denied the use of live ammunition, saying non-lethal means had been used as a warning and that no protesters had been injured.