More than 50 boats set off from the port of Marmaris in Turkey last week. Israeli forces have now stopped the boats off the coast of Cyprus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed in a statement via his office.
“You are doing an outstanding job,” he said to the military.
A live broadcast by the Global Sumud Flotilla, the organizer, showed activists putting on life jackets and raising their hands before Israeli soldiers boarded the boats. The broadcast was then interrupted.
An hour before Israel's intervention, the Israeli Foreign Ministry urged the activists to "change course and turn back immediately."
On April 30, Israeli forces stopped over 20 boats from a convoy near the Greek island of Crete.
