The organisers of a flotilla of activist vessels bound for Gaza said on Monday that Israeli forces had intercepted 28 of their boats in the eastern Mediterranean, while the remaining 26 ships were continuing to sail towards the enclave.
Earlier on Monday, Israel's foreign ministry had said on social media that it, "will not allow any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza". Ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla had set sail for a third time on Thursday from southern Turkey, after earlier attempts to breach the blockade were intercepted by Israel in international waters.
Live video showed military vessels approaching the vessels on Monday. "Military vessels are currently intercepting our fleet and (Israeli) forces are boarding the first of our boats in broad daylight," the Global Sumud Flotilla initially said on social media.
The group said there were 426 people taking part in the 54-vessel flotilla from 39 countries. It named 44 Turks among those on the intercepted vessels, some 250 nautical miles (463 kilometres) from Gaza.
Israel's foreign ministry also called on, "all participants in this provocation to change course and turn back immediately".
A Turkish activist on board the L'Arq vessel in the flotilla said he does not fear interception by Israeli forces but voiced concern for those already seized, adding the crew on his boat expected interception as soon as they got close to Gaza.
"We don't know where they are, we don't know how many of them were actually taken," Ahmet Soylemez said, speaking aboard the boat. A live tracker on the flotilla's website showed L'Arq was around 215 nautical miles from Gaza.
Turkey's foreign ministry condemned the Israeli intervention as a "new act of piracy", adding Ankara was taking the necessary steps to ensure the safe return of Turkish citizens on board the flotilla in coordination with other relevant countries.
The previous flotilla departed from Spain on April 12. But Israeli forces intercepted vessels in that group, taking more than 100 pro-Palestinian activists to Crete and detaining two others in Israel.
Last October, Israel's military halted another flotilla assembled by the same organisation, arresting controversial Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and more than 450 participants.
(Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer, Ed Davies and Sharon Singleton)
