V049-ISRAEL EXTERIORES PRISION KETZIOT

STORY: Some of the detained flotilla activists were believed to be held at the Ketziot Prison in southern Israel on Friday (3 October).

Israel faced international condemnation and protests on Thursday after its military intercepted almost all of about 40 boats in a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza and took captive more than 450 foreign activists, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, the organiser of the voyage, said on X that more than 450 volunteers had been detained. Earlier it said some of them were transferred to one large cargo vessel before being taken ashore.

One boat, the Marinette, was "still sailing strong," flotilla organizers said on a live video stream that showed the crew piloting the boat. Organizers said the Marinette was about 80 nautical miles from Gaza on Thursday night, and about 10 nautical miles from where Israel began intercepting other boats in the flotilla.

The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement it was taking all the people it had captured from the flotilla ashore at Ashdod, and that all were "safe and in good health."