SEPANG, May 20 — The Sumud Nusantara Command Centre (SNCC) has confirmed that all 50 vessels in the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) 2.0, carrying 428 humanitarian activists from 40 countries, were intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters about 80 nautical miles off the Gaza coast.
Its director-general Datuk Sani Araby Abdul Alim Araby said reports and visual evidence showed that the vessel Sirius was attacked with high-pressure water cannons and aggressively rammed by an Israeli naval ship identified as A833D.
“Visual evidence also captured shots being fired at the vessels Girolama and Elengi. Each vessel in the GSF flotilla is equipped with CCTV cameras mounted on the mast, and all recordings will serve as evidence.
“All activists, including doctors, media workers, ship captains, crew members, and human rights defenders, were confirmed to have been taken from their vessels under armed threat before being forcibly transferred to Israeli naval ships, which are believed to have taken them to the port of Ashdod yesterday,” he said during a media conference on the latest developments in the GSF 2.0 mission today.
Sani added that the incident also involved 18 vessels carrying 29 Malaysians, including the detention of four activists yesterday, namely Muhammad Hareez Adzrami and Chin Shiau Weai, who were aboard the vessel Alcyone, as well as Syed Amirul Syafiq Syed Iskandar (on Don Juan) and Noor Thanisah Mohammad Tajudin (on Zefiro).
“This is based on the latest confirmation from the SNCC operations room,” he said.
In a related development, SNCC confirmed that four of the 11 Indonesian regional delegates representing the Sumud Nusantara network were detained.
They are Herman Budianto and Ronggo Wirsano, who were aboard the vessel Alcyone, while Asad Aras and Hendro Prasetyo were on the vessel Kasri Sadabad.
He described the incident as a serious violation of international law and human rights, and called for urgent action from the international community to ensure the safety of all activists involved.
Similarly, the SNCC had been informed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan that diplomatic efforts were being stepped up and sustained to increase international pressure, including through close cooperation with friendly nations, to ensure all activists are released immediately and kept safe.
“SNCC fully supports the Malaysian government’s strong condemnation of the attack on the humanitarian mission,” Sani said.
The SNCC also backed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statement on May 18, condemning Israel’s ‘piracy and banditry’ against the humanitarian flotilla.
