BREAKING NEWS Two Australians revealed to be among boatload of Freedom Flotilla activists detained at gunpoint by Israeli special forces as they tried to sail to Gaza
Journalist Tania Safi and human rights activist Robert Martin both appeared in short pre-recorded videos speaking of their capture, which were released by the Freedom Flotilla group after the ship was boarded.
Israeli forces intercepted the activist ship 'Handala' on Saturday with a livestream broadcast by the pro-Palestinian campaign group showing armed soldiers boarding the vessel.
About 20 activists onboard could be seen sitting on the ship's deck, holding their hands up and whistling the Italian anti-fascist song 'Bella Ciao'.
Three live video feeds of the scene, broadcast online, were cut minutes later.
The Handala had been on course to try to break an Israeli naval blockade of Gaza and bring a small quantity of humanitarian aid to the territory's Palestinian residents.
An online tracking tool set up to plot the boat's path showed its position as around 30 miles from the Egyptian coast and roughly 60 miles west of Gaza when intercepted.
There was no immediate confirmation of the operation from the Israeli military.
But earlier in the day it had announced it would enforce 'the legal maritime security blockade on the Gaza Strip'.
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In another message on social media, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition declared: ''Handala' has been intercepted and boarded illegally by Israeli forces whilst in international waters.'
'We must stop asking for permission to enter a death camp. I did not leave the United Nations to abandon its founding principles. I left to live them, to act on them.
'The UN Charter stands for the dignity, freedom, and security of all peoples. So why, when these very rights are being obliterated, do we still see no meaningful response?
'This is a genocide. That is not just rhetoric - it is supported by reports, testimonies, and lived reality.
'And yet, no real consequences have followed. My resignation is not an act of walking away. It is an act of stepping up.
'Because human dignity is not protected by procedures alone, but by personal and institutional courage.
'When we carry food and medicine to Palestinians in Gaza and are told to turn back, it's not just a failure of politics. It's a failure of our moral architecture.
'This flotilla is not a threat. And Gaza is not a 'crisis' to be managed. Palestine is a mirror - reflecting both our humanity and the failure of our institutions to uphold it.
'To those still within the United Nations and other bodies: This responsibility is not only for activists, for those outside. You hold tools. You have a voice.
'Stop waiting for the perfect mandate to do what is already right.
'Neutrality in the face of mass death is not diplomacy. It is abandonment. Let Gaza live. Let the mirror change us.'
Two French MPs, Emma Fourreau and Gabrielle Cathala, were among those detained on the Handala on Saturday.
Their party leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon of France Unbowed (LFI), condemned Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu.
'Netanyahu's thugs boarded Handala. They attack 21 unarmed people in territorial waters where they have no right.
'A kidnapping in which two French parliamentarians are victims', he posted on X.
Mr Melenchon demanded the French government take action.
Thiago Avila, a Brazilian activist who had been onboard the last FFC boat sent to Gaza, the Madleen, posted about the Handala's interception late on Saturday evening.
He said: 'The Handala has just been illegally intercepted by the Zionist entity of Israel while carrying baby formula to starving children.'
Gaza is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with the UN and NGOs warning of an imminent famine.
The Handala's crew said in a post on X they would go on a hunger strike if the Israeli army intercepted the boat and detained its passengers.
The Madleen was intercepted by the Israeli army in international waters on June 9 and towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
It carried 12 campaigners on board, including prominent Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. These activists were eventually expelled by Israel.
The interception of the Handala comes after Israel 's military said air drops of aid will begin on Saturday night in Gaza and humanitarian corridors will be established for UN convoys.
It has yet to outline when the corridors would open or where - but added it is prepared to implement humanitarian pauses in densely populated areas.
Gaza's population of more than two million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials after some 21 months of war - particularly after Israel enacted a more than two-month-long blockade of the embattled Strip from March until May.
Previously, the UN condemned Israel's 'weaponisation of food' in Gaza, labelling it a war crime.
And on Monday, the UK, France and more than twenty other Western-aligned countries issued labelling Israel's operations 'unacceptable'.
It comes after the UN's human rights office reported Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food at aid distribution points since the US - and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) - started its operations in late May.
GHF rejected the statistics, describing them as 'false and exaggerated statistics' from the UN.
An anonymous Israeli security official claimed Hamas were responsible for fabricating 'cynical' reports of mass starvation in Gaza to The Times of Israel.
Charities operating in Gaza have said Israel's blockade and ongoing military offensive are pushing people there towards starvation.
They have warned they are seeing their own workers and Palestinians 'waste away'.
It comes as Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 53 people on Friday night into Saturday, with most shot dead while seeking aid, according to Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service.
Israeli gunfire was reported twice within hours close to the Zikim crossing, and least a dozen people were killed while waiting for aid trucks in the first incident, staff at a Shifa hospital said.
Israel's military said it fired warning shots to distance a crowd 'in response to an immediate threat' and it was not aware of any casualties.
A witness, Sherif Abu Aisha, said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from aid trucks.
But as they neared, they realised it was Israel's tanks - and the army began to open fire, killing several people including his uncle, he said.
'We went because there is no food... and nothing was distributed', he said.
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