A live feed from Handala was taken offline shortly after the IDF boarded the vessel. In the final seconds of the broadcast, an Israeli soldier can be seen grabbing the live camera. According to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the ship’s crew includes lawyers, activists, volunteer medics and journalists, & two French lawmakers.
by Linda Dayan and Liza Rozovsky, reposted from Ha’aretz
(Also read the press release on this incident from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition: Israeli Military Attacks Handala in International Waters)
Special forces from Israel’s Shayetet 13 seized Saturday night the Handala flotilla, the second vessel attempting to break Israel’s maritime siege on Gaza since the war began.
The Handala was seized slightly less than 50 nautical miles off the Gaza coast.
A live feed from the vessel was taken offline shortly after the IDF boarded Handala. In the final seconds of the broadcast, an Israeli soldier can be seen grabbing the live camera.
الآن قوات الاحتلال تقتحم #حنظلة pic.twitter.com/1ETJHsOCDb
— ICBSG | اللجنة الدولية لكسر الحصار عن غزة (@ICBSOFGAZA) July 26, 2025
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said Handala “has been violently intercepted by the Israeli military in international waters about forty nautical miles from Gaza.”
According to the group, “At 11:43 [P.M.] Palestine time, the Occupation cut the cameras on board Handala and we have lost all communication with our ship.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement, confirming the military has “stopped the vessel Navarn from illegally entering the maritime zone of the coast of Gaza.”
The ministry said the flotilla is “safely making its way to the shores of Israel,” adding that “all passengers are safe.”
According to Adalah – the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Israeli authorities have refused to allow lawyers from the organization access to the detained flotilla activists for legal consultation.
“Adalah reiterates that the activists aboard the Handala were part of a peaceful civilian mission to break through Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza,” the organization said in a statement. “The vessel was intercepted in international waters and their detention constitutes a clear violation of international law.”
Throughout Saturday, participants on the Handala described Israeli drones flying around the vessel, with some circling directly above the boat.
According to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organized both the Handala and the June flotilla on which Greta Thunberg sailed, 21 civilians are on board the boat.
Yellow Alert : pic.twitter.com/LF1A3rUWEZ
— ICBSG | اللجنة الدولية لكسر الحصار عن غزة (@ICBSOFGAZA) July 25, 2025
Participants include lawyers, activists, volunteer medics, and journalists, as well as two French lawmakers: Assembly member Gabrielle Cathala and European Parliament member Emma Fourreau, both of whom represent Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left La France Insoumise party.
The vessel also carries “life-saving humanitarian aid and a message of solidarity from people around the world refusing to stay silent as Gaza is starved, bombed and buried under rubble.”
The ship is named after the iconic barefoot, spiky-haired character by Palestinian political cartoonist Naji al-Ali, symbolizing Palestinian refugee children.
“The children of Gaza – who make up over half the population – have been living under a brutal blockade and siege for their entire lives,” the organization wrote. “Since October 2023, over 50,000 have been killed or injured, tens of thousands orphaned, and nearly a million forcibly displaced and homeless. All now face famine, disease, and trauma, few of us can imagine. This mission is for them.”
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition gained fame in June when the Madleen, a ship carrying a symbolic amount of aid bound for Gazans – as well as activists, European parliamentarians and climate campaigner-turned-Palestine advocate Greta Thunberg – was seized by Israeli forces off the coast of Gaza.
The organizers claim that those aboard the ship were “abducted by commandos and taken against their will to Israel, where they were interrogated, abused, then deported.”
The Israeli government had termed the boat a “selfie yacht” of celebrities who “attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity,” and posted pictures and videos of naval commandos handing out sandwiches to the activists aboard the ship. The small amount of aid “not consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels,” the Foreign Ministry stated.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the passengers were made to watch a movie about the events of Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, upon arriving in Israel’s Ashdod port. One participant in the flotilla described this to the Palestinian Quds News agency as “a form of torture.”
They were detained and brought before the court in advance of their deportations, and several of the 12 activists signed documents admitting that they had committed offenses against Israel and agreeing not to reenter Israeli territory before being repatriated. The remaining eight were released a few days later and returned to their home countries.
NOTE:
Many people are phoning the State Department at 202-647-4000 to report the international abduction of U.S. citizens and demand that they be released. The Americans are:
Christian Smalls
Huwaida Arraf
Dr. Frank Romano
Jacob Berger
Bob Suberi
Braedon Peluso
Waad Al Musa
RELATED:
- 15 Years Ago I Was on a Gaza Flotilla Mission That Ended in the Deaths of 10 and Wounding of 50 by Israeli Commandos (2010 flotilla)
- Freedom Flotilla Coalition to bring aid, international observers to Gaza this month (April 2025 flotilla)
- One Freedom Flotilla Passenger was a USS Liberty Survivor (2018 flotilla)
- Israeli forces attack Freedom Flotilla near Gaza’s shore (2018 flotilla)
