Contact with Gaza-bound flotilla lost: NGO

A Palestinian NGO said Sunday it has lost contact with a two-ship flotilla bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip.  

“Contacts have been lost with Al-Awda (Return) flotilla,” Adham Abu Silmiyya, a spokesman for the National Authority for Breaking the Siege on the Gaza Strip, told Anadolu Agency.  

“The Israeli naval forces are likely to have seized the ships,” he suggested.  

Israeli media, meanwhile, said naval forces had stopped a ship of the Gaza-bound flotilla, which continued sailing towards Gaza despite warnings.  

There was no confirmation from the Israeli army.  

Meanwhile, a statement by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organized the trip, said Israeli forces had contacted the vessel as it sailed 49 miles near to Gaza shores.  

According to the statement, Israeli soldiers warned activists on board against approaching the Gaza shores, threatening to use force, if needed, to stop the ships.  

If not seized by Israeli forces, the two-ship flotilla was set to reach Gaza shores later Sunday.  

The Gaza-bound flotilla had set sail from Norway on May 15 under the slogan "Right to a Just Future for Palestine" as part of a campaign to break an 11-year Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.  

Some 36 activists from 15 countries are on board of the two ships.  

By the end of 2016, nearly two million Gazans were depending on international aid in order to survive while nearly half of the families in Gaza lacked access to secure food supplies, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.  

Every year for eight years now, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition has been launching a new campaign to challenge the Israeli siege on the Palestinian seaside enclave.  

On May 31, 2010, Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists in the Mavi Marmara boat convoy in international waters. The convoy, which was part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was headed for Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. Another activist later succumbed to his injuries.