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Activists on board a flotilla of boats
flying trying to deliver aid to Gaza say
they've been intercepted by Israeli
warships as they were approaching the
territory. They provided this footage
from on board one of the vessels saying
passengers were sprayed with water
cannon. Israel's foreign ministry
confirmed several vessels have been
stopped and posted this video of the
Swedish climate activist Greta Tunberg.
It said that she and other passengers
are safe and being taken to an Israeli
port. Let us speak to our Middle East
correspondent Yoland Nell about this
latest development. It set off some
weeks ago, didn't it, Yoland? This
flotilla, where was it intercepted?
So the first boats in the flutella
because there are about 45 of them
involved were intercepted about 70
nautical miles um off the coast of Gaza.
That's in international waters and
they're challenging the legality of
that. Um more of the boats then have
been able to continue um on their way.
The last update on the telegram account
floor the flatillaa was saying that some
were within about 46 nautical miles of
the Gazen coast. This is where um for
several hours now, Israeli naval
commandos, we've seen them one by one
boarding these different vessels on some
of the live feeds. Um in one of the most
recent um videos that was put out by the
flutilla team, you can see that they
have their arms up, their hands up
rather, and the soldiers um pull
alongside the vessel um with their guns
raised and take control of it. We just
had a statement from the Israeli
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is
handling all the communications on this,
the Israeli military has told me. Um,
and it says that passengers in the
flatillaa are making their way to safely
and peacefully to Israel, where their
deportation procedures to Europe will
begin. Uh, this is all having to be
handled very carefully. This is a very
international flatillaa with people from
all around the world involved and
already there has been a lot of
criticism. Um Turkey came out with a
very strong statement calling um
Israel's um interception to these boats
an attack and saying that it was an act
of terror endangering civilian lives. Uh
Colombia has ordered the expulsion of
the Israeli diplomatic team that's there
in the absence of ambassador at the
moment because of the um detention of
some Colombian citizens who are on this
flatillaa. So you can see that this is
already having a lot of ramifications.
they had really become over the past
month with these boats sailing across
the Mediterranean very highprofile. You
had um Spain and Italy sending boats,
their own government sending boats to
protect their citizens who are in this
flatillaa um because of attacks that had
taken place. Um there had been drones
frequently seen overhead and at some
points incendury devices um dropped on
some of the boats taking part in the
flatillaa.
Just very briefly, Yoland, you mentioned
that there are other vessels still uh
heading towards Gaza. I mean, what's the
likelihood of them actually being able
to reach the territory?
Well, the Israeli military made clear
that it was going to uh intercept these
vessels um because they say that this is
a a zone that they police off the coast
of Gaza, that this is an active war
zone. Um the Israelis have been calling
the flatillaa a provocation but they
said that their mission was
humanitarian. They wanted to open a new
humanitarian corridor and they were
carrying food and medicines for the
people in Gaza who desperately need it.
Yoland for the moment. Thank you very
much. Yoland Nelly's correspondent.
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