00:00This is the Israeli Navy. You are approaching a blocked zone.
00:05An Israeli Navy officer orders the Global Sumed Flotilla to change course.
00:10Please change your course.
00:12Replying over the radio, the crew identify themselves as civilians on an aid mission to Gaza.
00:19We carry only food, aid, we carry water filters, we carry crutches, we carry baby formula for the people that you've been...
00:29...is starving to death.
00:31What follows is what members of the flotilla call active aggression, which is illegal in international waters.
00:41There are between 10 and 12 vessels approaching our flotilla, including one boat moving much faster than the others, probably to conduct the interception.
00:50So, these are the last minutes to call on governments to demand a safe passage of the flotilla.
00:55Communication systems are jammed.
01:01Some boats are hit by water cannons and others rammed by Navy vessels.
01:07The confrontation had been building since early Tuesday, when more than 40 boats entered what they called a high-risk area in the Mediterranean Sea.
01:18It's where the Israeli military stopped previous humanitarian missions to Gaza.
01:24Israel calls it an active combat zone.
01:28But the aggression this night is towards civilians, including the arrest of Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
01:36Thousands of miles away on land, demonstrations break out across nearly a dozen cities, as word of the Israeli actions spread.
01:49They include large marches in countries from where some of the boats set sail.
01:54With more than 500 people taking part, many of them say they will refuse to sign Israeli papers.
02:02And the flotilla's mission to highlight the suffering in Gaza is not yet at end.
02:08Felix Nwara, Al Jazeera.
02:11Earlier, my colleague Darren Jordan spoke with our correspondent Nida Ibrahim, and she explained what will come next for the activists who've been arrested.
02:18Now the process is going to be taking them to the port of Ashdod, taking at least the bigger boats, the smaller boats.
02:28We expect the Israeli forces to try and sink them.
02:30But then they're going to bring everyone to Ashdod and then try to find the legal framework for them,
02:37whereby they're going to have to be presented to a court under the accusation that they've tried to enter Israel illegally,
02:45although they weren't trying to enter Israel.
02:48They're in international waters.
02:50And they were going to Palestinian territorial waters to try and drop aid in the Gaza port and go back.
02:57You mentioned Ashdod there, Nida.
02:59The Israelis have been telling the flotilla boats to head to the port of Ashdod to offload the humanitarian aid,
03:06and then they will transfer it to Gaza.
03:08But should we believe the Israelis about what will actually happen to the aid?
03:12Well, the main reason we have a flotilla is because we have an Israeli blockade that has been ongoing in Gaza for more than 18 years.
03:20And since the war started, we've been seeing how much restriction Israel has imposed on Palestinians
03:27and aid trucks that are not being allowed to enter.
03:31A trickle of Gaza's needs is entering right now.
03:34We're talking about dozens of trucks.
03:37If that, and we have been talking and comparing that to more than 500 trucks that used to enter Gaza per day,
03:45when we talk about these small numbers that are entering and there's a vast need,
03:50this is what triggered these activists to come from more than 40 countries to try and bring aid to a much-needed place.
03:58But let me say that this is a symbolic aid.
04:00You know, they're bringing baby formula and some aid, but they're not sure that this is going to be hardly sufficient.
04:06But they're trying.
04:09Khwaira Araf is an activist who's part of the Freedom Flotilla currently sailing for Gaza.
04:13She says the international community is failing in its legal obligations,
04:17not just toward the flotilla, but the victims of Israel's genocide.
04:20Israel, its actions are not only intimidating, but they have caused serious injury and death to civilians on this flotilla.
04:31But what we have seen is that our countries allow Israel to get away with it.
04:35They have never held Israel accountable, even for killing civilians.
04:39And so we call on these countries to uphold your obligations under international law to Palestinians who are undergoing a genocide.
04:49Countries have a responsibility to act to end a genocide.
04:53And also countries have a responsibility to protect their civilians.
04:57So we are sailing peacefully in international waters.
05:00And Israel is threatening and has also already undertaken these illegal actions against us.
05:06They are attacking us and our countries are not only not doing anything,
05:11but recently we've heard countries, just the other day, Maloney in Italy, asking us to stand down,
05:20asking us to stand down to protect Israel's illegal blockade,
05:25and then not doing anything to pressure Israel not to violate our rights.
05:29The last vote that I was on two months ago was flagged in the United Kingdom.
05:34So what does that mean?
05:36And it was sovereign UK territory in international waters that Israel attacked,
05:40and not a peep from the UK that Israel attacked UK territory in international waters.
05:46That is the extent to which they go to protect Israel's illegal conduct.
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