ISRAEL TROOPS BOARD FLOTILLA

Taoiseach had urged boats to 'go no further'

- BY OWEN CONLON and CHRIS HUGHES

ACTIVISTS on board a flotilla sailing toward Gaza said last night that the Israeli navy has begun boarding their vessels as they approach the besieged Palestinian territory.

The Global Sumud Flotilla - with Greta Thunberg and Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela aboard alongside Irish activists including comedian Tadhg Hickey - consists of nearly 50 boats and 500 activists and is carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid.

It has remained undeterred in its mission to break the Israeli blockade of the coastal strip and reach Palestinians.

Israeli authorities last night said the activists on board the boats it intercepted, including Thunberg, were safe and being transferred to Israel.

Greg Stoker, an American veteran aboard one of the boats in the flotilla, said around a dozen naval vessels with their transponders off had approached it.