Israeli forces intercept 6 more activist flotilla vessels headed for Gaza

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces on Tuesday intercepted six remaining vessels from a much larger activist flotilla attempting to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. Two other boats are still on their way to the Palestinian territory, according to the activist group's livestream.

A live feed on the Global Sumud Flotilla website showed armed Israeli soldiers on Zodiac boats boarding the Andros, Zefiro, Don Juan, Alcyone and Elengi vessels as activists donning life vests held their arms up. Israeli soldiers then destroyed cameras mounted on the activists’ boats.

This is the group’s latest effort to underscore the grim living conditions of nearly 2 million Palestinians in the coastal territory, suffering from severe shortages of housing, food, and medicine.

The flotilla boats were stopped around 90-100 miles (145-160 kilometers) from the Gaza coastline, according to the flotilla’s website tracker.

The vessels departed last week from the port of Marmaris, Turkey, in what flotilla organizers described as the final leg of their planned journey to Gaza’s shores.

On Monday, the Israeli navy stopped some 41 boats from the activist flotilla in international waters off Cyprus, detaining those on board.

The Global Sumud Flotilla said Tuesday that hundreds of detained activists from over 40 nations were “being forcibly transported” by an Israeli naval ship to an unnamed port, due to arrive at its destination shortly.

More than a dozen Irish nationals were aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, including the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly. Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin on Monday called Israel’s interception of the Gaza-bound boats in international waters “absolutely unacceptable.”

The Flotilla said it demanded the “immediate, unconditional release of all our participants, alongside the more than 9,000 unjustly detained Palestinian political prisoners” and urged world leaders to press for the same.

The activist group also warned of “grave and immediate concerns” about the physical safety of all those detained following testimonies from other activists detained during an Apr. 30 interdiction. At the time, the activists detailed “patterns of torture, severe physical abuse, and invasive sexual violence” by Israeli forces, allegations Israel denies.

Several nations have condemned the interdictions, with Turkey and Hamas calling them an act of “piracy.” Italy, Spain and Indonesia called on Israel to release all the detained activists and to ensure their safety and well-being. An estimated 45 Spanish nationals took part in the flotilla.

Israel has called the flotilla “a provocation for the sake of provocation” with no real intent to deliver any aid to Gaza. The boats carry a symbolic amount of aid.

The Israeli defense body overseeing humanitarian aid to Gaza claims that sufficient aid is entering the territory, with around 600 trucks delivering assistance daily, similar to prewar levels.

According to a World Food Program report, the number of humanitarian and commercial trucks entering the Gaza Strip declined sharply in March compared with previous months following the Iran war. A daily average of only 112 trucks entered in March, compared to 230 in February and 225 in January.

Italian activist Daniele Gallina was with six others aboard a sailboat that diverted to a harbor in the Cypriot town of Paphos because of technical issues. He said he and his fellow activists see their mission as an attempt to open Gaza up to the world.

“What matters is not only the aid itself, important as it is, but the structural change it represents. It is also about challenging the collaboration of our own governments with these policies,” Gallina told The Associated Press in an online interview from Paphos.

Gallina said such interdictions of civilian vessels in international waters have driven people to understand how “governments are tolerating or enabling these actions.”

Even though the Flotilla’s mission was “entirely pacifist,” the Israeli military’s actions have demonstrated how international law is now “openly disregarded.”

“Acts of piracy and violations of international maritime law should never be acceptable, especially against peaceful civilian missions carrying no weapons,” Gallina said.

“We know we are doing the right thing. We are not heroes. We are ordinary people carrying out a protest mission, just as others protest in the streets,” he said, adding that he and his fellow activists remained determined to continue their protests “until Gaza is reached.”

Israel has maintained a sea blockade of Gaza since the Palestinian militant group Hamas took control of the territory in 2007. Israeli authorities intensified it in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people and saw more than 250 taken hostage.

Critics say the blockade amounts to collective punishment.

Israel has said the blockade, which restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza, was meant to prevent Hamas from arming itself. Egypt, which has the only border crossing with Gaza not controlled by Israel, has also greatly restricted movement in and out of the enclave.

Gaza has seen near-daily Israeli fire with more than 850 people killed in the territory despite a ceasefire that went into effect in October, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry says Israel’s retaliatory offensive following the Oct. 7 attack has killed more than 72,700 people. The ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas-run government, does not give a breakdown between civilians and militants.

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.

Protesters chant pro-Palestinian slogans outside Greece's Foreign Ministry after Israel's navy intercepted an activists flotilla in waters off of Cyprus, in Athens on Monday, May 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Protesters chant pro-Palestinian slogans outside Greece's Foreign Ministry after Israel's navy intercepted an activist flotilla in waters off of Cyprus, in Athens, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Protesters chant pro-Palestinian slogans outside Greece's Foreign Ministry after Israel's navy intercepted an activist flotilla in waters off of Cyprus, in Athens, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Federal safety investigators opened two days of hearings Tuesday to examine why the engine flew off a UPS cargo plane last year, causing a crash that killed 15 people, and why Boeing didn’t address an underlying flaw sooner.

The engine separated from the MD-11's wing as it accelerated down the runway Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport in November. The crash killed three pilots on the plane and 12 people on the ground. More were injured.

“Please know: Your loved ones are the reason we’re here. We want to find out what happened,” Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said as she addressed families during her opening remarks.

Separately, more details emerged as the NTSB released more than 2,000 pages of documents related to the disaster. The ill-fated plane was pressed into service after a fuel leak sidelined the original plane, investigators said, and the flight crew shared good-natured banter with the maintenance team during the second pre-flight inspection about “meeting again” so soon.

The hearings at the NTSB headquarters in Washington involve rounds of questions and answers among board members, investigators, and representatives of Boeing, UPS, the mechanics' union and other parties. The NTSB's final report likely won’t be ready until more than a year after the crash because it will look at every potential factor.

Here's what you should know:

The UPS plane, which was headed for Hawaii loaded with packages and fuel, had barely left the ground and cleared the airport fence when it crashed into several nearby Louisville businesses and created a massive fireball.

Dramatic photos the NTSB released after the crash showed the engine detaching and flying up and over the wing as flames erupted on the wing. The final images show the plane ablaze as it briefly gets airborne, leaving behind trails of smoke.

All MD-11s and DC-10s, a predecessor aircraft, were grounded after the crash. NTSB investigators said Tuesday that similar part flaws were found in three other UPS planes and a DC-10.

The Louisville disaster was reminiscent of a 1979 crash in Chicago involving a DC-10. The left engine also fell off in that crash, which killed 273 people and led to the worldwide grounding of 274 DC-10s.

The airliner returned to the skies because the NTSB determined that maintenance workers had damaged the plane that crashed while improperly using a forklift to reattach the engine. That meant the crash wasn’t caused by a fatal design flaw even though there had already been a number of accidents involving DC-10s.

But even at that point, the plane's manufacturer, McDonnell Douglas, raised concerns about the spherical bearing that helps hold the engines to the wings. McDonnell Douglas later merged with Boeing.

The NTSB said shortly after the Louisville crash that investigators had found cracks in some of the parts that held the engine to the wing. Those cracks hadn’t been caught in regular maintenance done on the plane, which raised questions about the adequacy of the maintenance schedule. The last time those key engine mount parts were examined closely was in October 2021, and the plane wasn’t due for another detailed inspection for roughly 7,000 more takeoffs and landings.

Boeing had documented in 2011 there were four previous failures on three different planes of a part that helps secure the MD-11’s engines to the wings, but at that point the plane manufacturer “determined it would not result in a safety of flight condition.”

The service bulletin that Boeing issued didn’t require plane owners to make repairs like an FAA airworthiness directive would, and the agency didn’t issue such a directive. At that point, Boeing just recommended replacing the bearings with a redesigned part that was less likely to fail.

Some MD-11s, a workhorse of the cargo fleet, are now back in the air after the FAA approved Boeing's plan to replace the spherical bearing on each aircraft and increase inspections.

FedEx resumed using the planes to deliver packages on May 10, but UPS has said it plans to retire its fleet of MD-11s. Western Global also uses MD-11s but hasn’t said what it plans to do.

Some experts speculated after the crash that the MD-11s might never fly again if the repair proved to be more expensive that it was worth in these older planes. But Boeing said it found a way to address the safety concerns simply by replacing the bearing and stepping up inspections.

FILE - This photo provided by the National Transportation Safety Board shows UPS plane crash scene, Nov. 6, 2025 in Louisville, Ky. (NTSB via AP, File)

FILE - Plumes of smoke rise from the area of a UPS cargo plane crash at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Nov. 4, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry, File)