ITALY AND SPAIN ALL BUT DELARE WAR ON ISRAEL

Italy, Spain navies to escort Gaza flotilla in wake of alleged attacks

Rome dispatched the first warship on Wednesday, hours after flotilla organizers claimed the protest ships were targeted by drones. 

 

JNS

Sep 25, 2025

  

The Italian Naval frigate Virginio Fasan, which has been deployed to protect the Sumud Flotilla after it was attacked by drones en route to Gaza.

 

Italy and Spain announced on Wednesday that they would deploy warships to escort the Global Sumud Flotilla, which has allegedly come under attack while attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

The protest flotilla, organized by anti-Israel groups and initially launched from Barcelona, departed Tunisia on Sept. 15 for Gaza after repeated delays caused by rough seas. As of Thursday, the 50 ships remained far from Israel’s territorial waters, with more than 500 nautical miles remaining in their planned voyage.

Rome sent the first naval vessels on Wednesday, hours after the organizers claimed the protest ships were targeted by drones that dropped stun grenades and itching powder as they sailed off the Greek island of Gavdos, south of Crete.

The Global Sumud Flotilla blamed Israel for the alleged drone attack, though a spokesperson for Greece’s Hellenic Coast Guard told AFP it did not see any evidence of damage or other proof of a UAV strike.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto announced on Thursday that his country had sent one naval warship and another was on its way, primarily to offer assistance to Italian participants in the flotilla.

Crosetto also urged activists to abandon plans to breach the blockade.

“It is not an act of war, it is not a provocation: it is an act of humanity, which is a duty of a state toward its citizens,” Crosetto told the Italian Senate of the decision to send the warships ahead of the flotilla’s expected interception by the Israeli Navy.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had stressed on Wednesday that no use of military force was expected by her country’s navy, slamming the flotilla initiative as “gratuitous, dangerous and irresponsible.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, speaking at a press conference in New York on Wednesday, said his country’s warship would “ensure our citizens can be evacuated” to Spain “if necessary.”

“The government of Spain demands compliance with international law and respect for the right of our citizens to navigate safely in the Mediterranean,” the anti-Israel politician wrote in an X post.

According to the El País daily, the ship that being deployed is the Furor, an oceanic patrol vessel armed with a cannon, two machine guns, a helicopter and a drone. The Spanish Navy ship, which set sail on Thursday, has medical staff and can accommodate up to 80 people.

It is comparable in size, but with very different functions, to a corvette.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry emphasized in an X post on Wednesday night that Jerusalem “will not allow vessels to enter an active combat zone and will not allow the breach of a lawful naval blockade.

“We have another proposal for the Hamas-Sumud flotilla: If this is not about provocation and serving Hamas, you are welcome to unload any aid you might have at any port in a nearby country outside Israel, from which it can be transferred peacefully to Gaza,” the ministry stated.

“Is this about aid or about provocation?” asked the post.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French European parliamentarian of Palestinian origin, are among those participating in the latest attempt to break Gaza’s naval blockade.

The declared objective of the Global Sumud Flotilla—sumud meaning “steadfastness” in Arabic—is to “to break the illegal siege on Gaza by sea, open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide” there.

Jerusalem maintains that its naval blockade on the enclave, imposed on Jan. 3, 2009, is compatible with international law. It aims to prevent arms, terrorists and money from entering or exiting Gaza by sea.

In June, Israel blocked another flotilla to the Gaza Strip. Thunberg, who also participated in that attempt, was returned to her native Sweden and banned from entering Israel, along with 11 other activists, for 100 years.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily on Thursday that the flotilla “is connected to Hamas, which supports it.

“I can prove it. It is not an innocent project. Their objective is not to help people or to bring humanitarian aid but to break the siege on Gaza. If you break it once, then you can do it many times,” the diplomat said.