The Italian Navy will stop pursuing the international aid flotilla to Gaza once it approaches 150 nautical miles from the coast, the Italian Defense Ministry announced.
The Italian navy will no longer accompany the international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza once it approaches within 150 nautical miles (278 km) of the coast, Italy's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
The “Global Sumud” flotilla, made up of more than 40 civilian ships carrying parliamentarians, lawyers and activists – including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg – aims to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Once the convoy reaches the 150 nautical mile limit, the Italian frigate accompanying it will stop, "as has been communicated several times in recent days," the ministry statement said.
The military ship will give two warnings to the activists, with the second and final one expected to be given around 00:00 GMT, when the flotilla is expected to approach within the designated distance, the statement added.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Italian flotilla's spokeswoman, Maria Elena Delia, said that activists had been informed of government plans for the Italian warship to stop and turn back, to avoid a "diplomatic incident" with Israel.
She stressed that the flotilla does not intend to obey Italy's warnings not to approach the coast.
Italy and Spain sent warships last week to support the flotilla after it was hit in international waters near Greece by drones equipped with stun grenades and irritants, but without the intention of military intervention.
Delia added that activists are preparing for another attack in the coming hours:
"Israel will probably attack us tonight, because all the signals point towards that," she said in an Instagram video.
The ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla announced tonight that they are 250 nautical miles from Gaza and 100 nautical miles from the high-risk zone. This has been confirmed by the Italian delegation.
"The Global Sumud Flotilla ships, Jeannot III and Estrella, are sailing in a straight line and are expected to arrive in 3 days," an update said, "within a day and a half, the flotilla will enter the high-risk area, where previous flotillas have been stopped.
This is the area where global attention and solidarity are most needed." "We recall that the Johnny M was evacuated to safety after damage to the engine room, but this will not cause significant delays in our mission," the statement added, "all participants have been transferred to safety."
The flotilla is sending the position map in real time.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has stated that it has found official documents in Gaza that prove that Hamas is involved "directly in financing the Sumud flotilla."
The documents include a list of PCPA (Conference for Palestinians Abroad) operatives, including senior Hamas officials: Zaher Birawi, head of the Hamas branch of the PCPA in the UK, known as the leader of the flotillas for the past 15 years, and Saif Abu Kashk, CEO of Cyber Neptune, a company in Spain that owns dozens of ships participating in the flotilla. “These ships are covertly Hamas,” the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) wrote, publishing the documents.
