A flotilla of boats leaves the port of San Giovanni Li Cuti in Sicily, Italy, September 27, 2025. A similar flotilla left Turkey on Thursday en route for Gaza and was intercepted off Cyprus on Monday. File Photo by Orietta Scardino/EPA
May 18 (UPI) -- Pro-Palestinian activists said Monday that Israeli forces intercepted a fleet of boats carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza as they were off the coast of Cyprus.
The Israeli forces boarded the flotilla of more than 50 vessels about 250 nautical miles from Gaza, the BBC reported. One by one, activists on the boats posted messages, photos and videos on X as forces intercepted them Monday.
The group of activists, operating as the Global Sumud Flotilla, said they sought "to break the illegal siege on Gaza and open a humanitarian corridor." The flotilla departed Turkey's coast on the Mediterranean on Thursday.
"We demand safe passage for our legal, non-violent humanitarian mission," the group said in a post on X. "Governments must act now to stop these illegal acts [of] piracy meant to maintain Israel's genocidal siege on Gaza. Normalization of the occupation's violence is a threat to us all."
