Gaza aid flotilla activists taken to Crete after Israeli interception

ATHERINOLAKKOS, Greece, May 1 (Reuters) - More than 100 pro-Palestinian activists aboard aid ships bound for Gaza were taken to the Greek island of Crete on Friday after Israeli forces seized their vessels in international waters near Greece, flotilla organisers said.

The activists were part of a second Global Sumud flotilla, launched in recent months in an attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian assistance. The ships set sail from the Spanish port of Barcelona on April 12.

On Friday, an Israeli army ship transferred 168 members of the flotilla crew to Greek boats, which then took them to shore where buses and one ambulance car waited for them, organisers said and Reuters footage showed. The organisers said two activists remained with Israeli authorities.

A source who asked not to be identified said that while 22 boats had been intercepted by Israel, 47 others were still sailing off southern Crete and planned to anchor there at some point before continuing onwards to Gaza. Each ship is carrying about a ton of food, medical and other equipment, the source said.

The 22 vessels were seized by Israel late on Wednesday in international waters off Greece's Peloponnese peninsula, which is hundreds of miles from Gaza, the flotilla's organisers said.

Israel's foreign ministry called the flotilla organisers "professional provocateurs," while Germany and Italy's foreign ministries issued a joint statement saying they were following developments with "deep concern."

In a statement on Thursday, the U.S. State Department threatened "to impose consequences" against those who support the flotilla, which it cast as pro-Hamas.

Pro-Palestinian activists say Israel and the U.S. wrongly conflate their advocacy for Palestinian rights as support for Hamas extremists.

Last October Israel's military halted a previous flotilla assembled by the same organisation, arresting Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and more than 450 participants. That followed other seaborne attempts to reach blockaded Gaza.

Palestinians and international aid bodies say supplies reaching Gaza are still insufficient, despite a ceasefire reached in October that included guarantees of increased aid.

Most of Gaza's more than two million people have been displaced, many now living in bombed-out homes and makeshift tents pitched on open ground, roadsides, or atop the ruins of destroyed buildings.

Israel, which controls all access to the Gaza Strip, denies withholding supplies for its residents.

(Reporting by Reuters TV and Renee Maltezou and Angeliki Koutantou; writing by Ivana Sekularac, Editing by William Maclean)