Media Release
Flotilla Update: Flotilla Tracker
As the Global Sumud Flotilla reaches locations of previous interception by Israel, drones hover overhead. The drones are too high to photograph.
Juliet Lamont of Wahoo on Global Sumud Flotilla is reporting many drones directly above the flotilla. Radios are jammed with the Bob Marley song “Three Little Birds”. This move usually precedes a drone attack.
An unidentified boat is weaving through the flotilla. One boat has reported engine trouble.
DFAT Silent as Families of Australians on Flotilla Left in the Dark
Families of Australians aboard the flotilla say the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is failing in its duty of care, leaving citizens in danger without meaningful communication or support.
On 24 September, DFAT promised a case officer would be assigned to handle inquiries. Families were told to call DFAT’s 1300 hotline and select option 6 to connect with the officer.
A family spokesperson escalated the matter this morning by following DFAT’s instructions after her daughter asked her to after unsuccessfully trying the email address. Staff said a case officer would call back after 9:30am. No call has come. When pressed for a reliable email address, DFAT repeated the same one that had already gone unanswered. Staff then claimed they would “advise the case officer” – presumably the same officer who has still not returned a single email or call.
“These are Australian citizens in a dangerous situation, yet DFAT is brushing families off with generic emails and empty promises,” the spokesperson said. “It looks like DFAT is deliberately avoiding its responsibilities. This seems lazy and cowardly.”
Others with loved ones on the flotilla say they are facing the same silence and neglect.
“We demand DFAT immediately explain what action it is taking to protect Australians on the flotilla – and why families are being left to beg for updates that never come.”
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Why is it suddenly a government dept. responsibility to ensure these people who have taken leave of their senses, and deliberately sailed into a war zone?? We (the government agencies) surely cannot be held responsible for these mindless individuals, just my opinion, they are a menace to themselves and others they put in harms way. Who let them lose in the first place!
Mr. Mathers
Since when are people trying to take baby formula and medicines to babies, that are being starved to death, taking leave of their senses? Are you suggesting the leaders of governments and their citizens sitting around and watching Israel murder children, women and men, watching them starve them to death, watching them organize tourist trips for Israeli citizens to Gaza, listening to them blatantly plan to displace the Gazans,and doing nothing about it other than offering the odd meaningless, hollow wimpering for Israel to stop are the sensible ones?
Since when is trying to stop a genocide taking leave of your senses?
A “war zone”? When a nuclear-armed country, with US financial backing and armed to the teeth with the latest in weaponry starts slaughtering a population armed with a few rockets and grenade launchers it is not a “war” it is a massacre, an annilhilation, a genocide, but not a war – it is an obscenity to refer to this genocide as a war.
The real question is when did Albanese, Wong, Dreyfus, Marles, Labor and its supporters take leave of their senses and do nothing meaningful for almost two years to stop a genocide.
Mr. Mathers
Can it be taken that you consider all the doctors volunteering to work in Gazan hospitals are “mindless individuals”,”a menace to themselves and others they put in harms way”? You know, the ones coming back telling of treating that many children with a single shot to their head that they are convinced these were definitely not acts of “war”.
Was the aid worker Zomi Frankcom “a mindless individual”, a menace to herself? Was she putting others in harms way when an Israeli missile destroyed the clearly marked vehicle that travelled on a route agreed to by Israel? It would seem to me the Albanese government did. After an outburst of outrage all the Albanese government did was send some lackey over to Israel supposedly to investigate, who took something like six months to come back and tell us what Israel claims happened. Well, unless you’ve taken leave of your senses why enter a “war zone”to find out what really happened, right? Maybe he felt the same way as you and just waited somewhere safe for a while and brought back Israel’s report.
Israel’s attacks on flotillas taking aid to Gaza are an obvious breach of International law, but you won’t hear Albanese or Wong say that. Labor has allowed Israel and the US to flout International law continously for nearly two years and failed to stand up for International law or ‘rules-based order'(there only any good for speeches to the UN, right?) And it would seem you would support Israel breaking international law as well.
@Sheville Mathers – 157 of 193 nations on Earth would disagree with you including OFFICIALLY Australia. So OFFICIALLY Australia DFAT should be answering their calls unless the Australian government is suffering from Trumpian hypocrisy, Optus calamity or whiteout, unless USA are using Pine Gap to block calls on our very own soil. Netanyahu seems to have these skills with mobile phone networks, drones aside, blowing people up from their inside pockets in another country.
Perhaps you have forgotten the flotilla is in international waters and is formally protected under the Geneva Convention, even in a ‘war’ or ‘slaughter’ zone, and one that doesn’t belong exclusively to Israel – We know what Israel thinks of that. Apparently you seem to display the same kind of thinking in the world as those who are actively destroying it. And then there are the tens of thousands of defenceless children being mindlessly targeted and slaughtered, who have nowhere to run… let’s leave them in harms way, not as if they chose to be born there or had any choice in their fate. I guess this is their fault too!
Frankly I think your opinion lacks moral, legal and cognitive reason and it sounds to me you have taken leave of your senses. Just my opinion, but this kind of thinking puts us all in harms way.
PS I presume you mean ‘loose’… so you appear to imply humanitarians, social justice advocates and ordinary people who care about others, should be treated like criminals and blown out of the water (another Trumpian champ); and civil rights and freedoms won over centuries don’t matter to you, while you enjoy your freedom in this country because of others’ efforts. That sounds pretty mindless to me.
A humanitarian flotilla heading for Gaza is now just days away from reaching the Strip. 43 ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla left the Greek island of Crete on Saturday and are being joined by two sailing SSE to join them. Spain and Italy have dispatched two naval vessels to provide emergency assistance to the flotilla if necessary, and it is reported a Turkish naval vessel carrying the Red Crescent is joining them.
Al Jazeera’s Hassan Massoud is with the Gaza aid flotilla on the Mediterranean Sea and says activists know they could come under attack again.
Al Jazeera, 29 September 2025
Tracking the Flotilla https://globalsumudflotilla.org/tracker/
‘Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt
@FranceskAlbs
·
1h
@gbsumudflotilla
120nm from Gaza after a night of harassment. If intercepted, delegates will not resist and be abducted.
Look at Europe: unable to confront the Mediterranean bully with its navies while ordinary people from 44countries risk everything.
Rotten politics killing🇵🇸
David Adler
@davidrkadler’
“Dear friends,
I fear this will be the final letter that I write to you from the Global Sumud Flotilla — now just 120 NM from the shores of Gaza.
Last night, several Israeli naval ships menaced our convoy. They attacked our vessels, intimidated our crew, and disabled our communications.
We recognize these tactics from previous flotilla missions. We know that they are the precursor to what we have long feared: illegal Israeli abduction in international waters.
As I write this, we are preparing ourselves for such an imminent attack. We know the procedures. We know the protocols. When they board our boats, we will not resist. We are ready.
From our cell phones and our CCTVs, we will do our best to document everything. We will transmit it to the world. And we will rely on you to spread the word about this criminal attack.
But before they intercept us, I want to say something — corny, I know; copium, possibly — but that I truly believe nonetheless: that even if we do not complete our mission this time, the Sumud flotilla has already achieved so much.
The flotilla has rallied the world’s attention once again to the suffering of the people of Gaza. The flotilla has joined land and sea in the mass mobilization of millions. And the flotilla has forced reluctant states into active confrontation with the illegal siege that has starved the people of Palestine and robbed them of their right to self-determination.
Above all, the flotilla has proven that ordinary people – doctors, fishermen, students, journalists, lawyers, clergymen, and retirees from 44 countries – can not only unite around a sense moral outrage, but also take matters into their own hands to do something about it.
We set sail from Barcelona not just as a symbolic gesture of solidarity — but as an act of construction: to build a permanent humanitarian corridor to reach the people of Gaza by sea. And while our boats may be intercepted, that idea cannot detained. The demand for a corridor will outlive this flotilla; a new fleet of ships is already on its way from Corsica to break the siege. Our movement only grows.
When Israeli authorities forcibly board our vessels in the coming hours, please know that they will be committing an act of piracy. They will be violating the sovereignty of the seas. They will be obstructing a peaceful humanitarian mission witnessed by the entire world.
Let them try to justify it. Let them explain to the international community why our humble effort to feed the starving people of Gaza represents some threat to their national security. No one will believe them. The Hasbara simply doesn’t hit anymore.
From here on the Ohwayla, I can say that we are not afraid of interception, interrogation, or incarceration. What we fear is a world where such abductions become routine. Where humanitarians are treated as criminals. Where bringing food to hungry children is called terrorism.
So when you hear that we have been intercepted – and you will hear it, within the coming hours – please do not fear for us. We knew what we were sailing toward. We made this choice with open eyes and full hearts.
Instead, let’s raise hell! 😈
Make those Insta posts, yell at our pathetic representatives, and join our demand for a corridor now. Not as a dream, but as a concrete policy. The infrastructure we could not complete, states must build. The siege we came to break, they must end once and for all.
If there is one thing I have learned on this journey, surrounded by these extraordinary new friends from every corner of the earth, it is this: that collective action really is a beautiful thing. When we refuse to accept the unacceptable, when we put our bodies between injustice and its victims, we really can alter the course of history, however modestly.
I guess more than anything, I want to thank you all for your support, your love, and your company on this mission. I hope it is not too long before I see you on the other side.
Yours with love,
David”
https://x.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1973296899882098859
Turkey has joined Spain, Italy and Greece in monitoring the Global Sumud Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Flight data shows that three Turkish drones have hovered over the flotilla for days. The Red Crescent, with the aid of the Turkish Navy, also delivered additional humanitarian supplies to the flotilla, according to flotilla organizers.
24/7 Live stream of Global Sumud Flotilla https://www.youtube.com/live/uEN2bWFtpjU?si=bn3hco-0VP0E077F
FAILURE AND SHAME OF NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS AROUND THE WORLD INCLUDING AUSTRALIA – Ordinary people doing the job a hundred nations have failed to do – If European and North African countries bordering the Mediterranean all sent defence naval vessel, if you like an international fleet, this would have ensured a safe corridor. Is Israel going to declare war on every country in international waters while doing their job (obligations) under the UN Charter of protecting humanitarian efforts and preventing genocide? This could have been done 12 months ago, when all the evidence was in our face. Israel and the USA (Trump) get away with it because of inaction of nations around the world, and this has been going on for decades, since 1948.
IDF BULLIES AND COWARDS THREATEN FLOTILLA UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS
Israel is intercepting the humanitarian mission under cover of darkness as we speak and post this news. 12 boats intercepted and the IDF appear to have broken up the flotilla in maritime international waters approximately 60 nautical kilometres directly north off the coast of Egypt, and 100 kms clearly on a heading to Gaza, not Israel.
Jaenette III, Fair Lady, Ohwayla on livestream confronted in spotlight of IDF vessel, 9 other boats reported intercepted behind main body of flotilla.
10am AEST (Australia)
Livestream https://www.youtube.com/live/uEN2bWFtpjU
Flotilla tracker – https://globalsumudflotilla.org/tracker/
IDF chasing the Flotilla off the coast of Egypt – 10.30am AEST (Australia)
cc Penny Wong – Senator for SA, Anthony Albanese, The Australian Greens, Amnesty International Australia, The Australian Independent Media Network, UK in Australia – British High Commission Canberra, The Guardian, Guardian Australia
I thought the Italians and Spanish had moved ships into place to protect the flotilla.
But what can you say when the sheer nature of the exercise penetrates though?
I am surprised at Mr Shevill Mathers, a long term commentator, could have issued such a strange comment.
I think, Gonggongche gets us back on course.
Much of Western media is complicit in this genocide.
Today, for example, thenewdaily reported Israel’s abduction of the activists as “Israeli forces have boarded the Gaza aid flotilla carrying activist Greta Thunberg and up to 10 Australians, apprehending them and taking them to an Israeli port.” Apprehend means to arrest someone for a crime.
The activists have committed no crime whatsoever. Israel committed piracy and kidnapped people, yet thenewdaily twists it to make the victims the perpetrator and the perpetrators the victim.
How many massmedia sources do you see calling this what it is – piracy and kidnapping?
I’m reminded of the Amsterdam riots where mainstream media and politicians pushed a narrative that was the opposite of the truth, despite initial reporting being factual.
It is highly likely that Israel has kidnapped Australian citizens. Don’t expect to see any meaningful action or response from Albanese, who stood up in the UN and in an obscene and pernicious statement falsely claimed Palestinians teach their children hatred.
Don’t expect anything more than a pathetic, hollow whispering from Wong, who callously told Fatima Paymen that she had to wait 10 years, when Fatima called for action against the genocide.
Yes. The flotilla has been intercepted- an act of piracy- and apparently Greta Thunberg and others have been arrested (by what authority?) A pic I’ve seen has a group of people sitting on a deck floor surrounded by armed troops.
No wonder Trump had the boat in Caribbean bombed first; if they can do that, Israel can do pretty much what it likes?
Clarification: “…Wong, who callously told Fatima Paymen that she had to wait 10 years, when…” the ‘she’ refers to Penny Wong, and the 10 year wait refers to waiting for marriage equality.
Mr. S Mathers appears to lack comprehension, basic information, humanity, any awareness of realities involved here, and tends to autopoopaint.
THE WORLD IS CACTUS – TAKE A PILL FOR GAZA
The IDF (Israel) illegally hunted down the Flotilla just north, off the coast of Egypt in international waters throughout the night and early morning of Thursday 2 October 2025. The Italian, Spanish and Turkish naval vessels retreated in international waters the night before, long before the flotilla reached even close to national maritime borders, and were abandoned; closest to Egypt, then Gaza which is officially part of Palestine, not Israel – but illegally occupied, bombed and raised to dust and rubble while Palestinians are hunted like caged rats, nowhere to go to avoid the mass slaughter, genocide and starvation. Egypt did nothing, Italy did nothing, Turkey did nothing, Greece did nothing, Spain said their citizens in the flotilla would be given diplomatic immunity, as if. In Italy the people came out on the streets and called for mass strikes disgusted with their government. Around the world every other government and nation turned a blind eye rabbiting in diplomatic tongues and nonsense like Easter bunnies diving up and down their holes – the world did nothing. Only the people of the world in most nations stood up and shouted ‘that is enough’ and took to the streets, only for their respective police forces to treat them like criminals and naughty children – truncheons in the ribs.
‘Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning’.
Aboard the flotilla, people – nay humanitarian envoys from 44 countries ran the evil Israeli gauntlet, the dark menacing horse of our times, riding the apocalypse. USA and the West kick up a fuss and fart in our face when China mans and patrols the South China Sea, Trump patrols the Caribbean, the ha ha wall he calls ‘Gulf of America’, but when Israel claims the international waters of the East Mediterranean invading other territories, slaughtering children like tomorrow never existed with American weapons of mass destruction, the West and the world, led by our hollow governments, batten down the hatches, and duck down their rabbit holes for fear of getting their heads chopped off or their bums slapped.
This is what our world has come to – the people protest peacefully, assertively, relentlessly and continue to be ignored. Yesterday, 2 October 2025 we witnessed the absolute cowards our government and nations represent, while our leaders line their pockets, expect us to pay them homage, and they rip us all off with fake hollow democracies, each searching for their own noble prizes.
The people’s flotilla was hunted down by the Zionist Carnivore dressed in sheep’s clothes in the middle of the night humming and howling antisemitic hymns and overtures in silent stealth and defence, yeah but – the shepherd abandoned the flock that feeds them. Christ (whichever hill you climb) I think the shepherd gave up his profession long ago, and that is why we have never heard from him since. Yes God must have been male while Mother Earth weeps. Are these still not the times of pathology and patriarchy, are the Anthropocene? More fundamentalist and devoid of moral reasoning than ever we were before – religion, profit, politics, power, weapons, all going nuclear down those dark dungeonite rabbit holes – damn them all. We are all the poorer for them.
Netanyahu and his tribe will face the consequences for his crimes, Trump too – Bang or whimper… we’ll see. But yesterday was a cracker for the colosseum. Next show on the road – Trump and Netanyahu’s punch and Judy show on the Beach of Gaza, to deny every Palestinian their life and destiny, the lies and hypocrisy we all swallow like a poisoned pill. The sycophants are counting buttons in their parlour.
I am disgusted by ‘humanity’, our governments, our nations – every last one of them; inspired only by the people, the humble people, the empathy, the compassion, the imagination of the people. And the Global Sumud Flotilla… our covenant and sacrifice, we thank you for your simple courage, your honesty and carrying our heart to Gaza and back again.
Middle East Eye https://www.facebook.com/reel/758791107150952 – They know you were there for them, they dreamt it on the horizon as the world once again abandoned us all in the land of Judea.
Jon
It seems that the Israeli forces and their government were prepared to go to war on the high seas rather than allow a small quantity of aid to get into Gaza. The international escort accompanying the flotilla diplomatically backed off thus avoiding an international incident.
Once again, the Israeli forces can boast that they prevented infant formula reaching malnourished and starving babies and all this on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, observed with strict fasting and ceremonial repentance – ironic in the circumstances.
What is wrong with these people?
Terry Mills gets to the guts of it.
The cruelty.
On a another subject that has turned up here. I refer to Mr Shevill Mathers.
This commentor is an old hand, been round for years; often posted good stuff, but given the monstrous situation in Gaza, his comments way miss the point.