The last small boat of the flotilla is intercepted by the Israeli army

BarcelonaOne last one small boat of the Global Sumud Flotilla, the small Marinette, has managed to approach the coast of Gaza This Friday morning, just before being intercepted by the Israeli army. With five people on board, the small boat had been delayed after Israel intercepted the rest of the flotilla, which consisted of 44 vessels, on Thursday. At around 5 a.m. this Friday, Catalan time, the Marinette According to its GPS, it was approximately 43 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza.

The boat's camera livestreamed the small ship's final journey. At one point, its crew wrote "We see a boat" on a sign and showed it to the camera, as there was no sound at the time. They then prepared for the Israeli soldiers to board, donning life jackets. Shortly after, an Israeli military boat could be seen on the horizon behind the boat, while the crew members disappeared from the image, walking along the deck toward the other end of the boat. A few minutes later, the Israeli military boat was seen again, and a boat with about ten soldiers on board made the journey from there to the MarinetteArmed with rifles and fully equipped, the soldiers boarded the flotilla ship just before the video signal was finally cut off.

The five members of this latest vessel have thus allegedly joined the 473 activists who were arrested on Thursday and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod. There, they were all booked by the police and taken before border authorities for immigration procedures, accused of having entered Israel illegally, despite having been intercepted in international waters and forcibly transferred to Israel. This procedure continued throughout the night, and most of those arrested were transferred by a trickle of buses from the port of Ashdod to Saharonim prison, located in southern Israel, near the border with Egypt.

This Friday morning, the first four activists were released and expelled from the country. Specifically, the four Italian MEPs and parliamentarians who were part of the flotilla have already been transferred to Tel Aviv airport to take a scheduled flight to Rome, according to the Italian Foreign Ministry. They are MEPs Benedetta Scuderi of the Greens-European Free Alliance and Annalisa Corrado of the Democratic Party (PD); Five Star Movement Senator Marco Croatti; and PD MP Arturo Scotto. The Italian government of far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has demonstrated its direct relationship with the Israeli government in recent days, which led Italy to announce yesterday that all the activists would be deported on flights to Madrid and London early next week.

The Israeli government will take those who accept voluntary deportation to the airport to board a deportation flight, as it has already done with the four Italian parliamentarians. The transfer could take place in the next few hours. For those who do not accept voluntary deportation, a judicial procedure will be opened in which a judge will decide on their deportation. This process will take more time, but will still result in their expulsion from the country, likely on flights to Madrid and London on October 6 and 7, as Italy has announced.