Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim reports that the Global Sumud Flotilla has been surrounded by Israeli warships.

“The idea that the organisers had was that by diversifying all of these ships, it could potentially manage to get some of them through into Gaza,” she adds. “The Israeli forces told them that they have to give aid through the channels, which means the Israeli forces.”

According to Ibrahim, Israel says that this is a blockade that has been enforced by a military order, to which the flotilla responded that “what’s happening in Gaza is a genocide, is using a famine and starvation as a weapon of war, and they are insisting on continuing their journey to Gaza”.

“When we talk about these interceptions by the Israeli forces that often happen in international waters, we are talking about interception that is considered illegal because these humanitarian missions are only going from international waters to Palestinian territorial waters,” Ibrahim reports.