Lawless Israel Kidnaps Six Australians from Global Sumud Flotilla on the High Seas

Zack Schofield, an Australian citizen, reported over social media from a boat sailing in international waters west of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea at around 8 am Sydney time on 30 April 2026, that those onboard were likely to soon be taken by Israel. Drones were all around the vessel, which was part of the Global Sumud Flotilla and was bound for Gaza carrying aid for the Palestinians.

Schofield explained this, prior to his boat, just like 21 others, was approached by Israeli-identified military speedboats pointing lasers and semiautomatic assault rifles directly at them. As of Thursday evening, the Israelis had illegally snatched 175 foreigners off waters 965 kilometres away from the coast of the Gaza Strip, which is territory it illegally occupies, and the UN has told it to leave.

“What is really terrifying about this is it’s yet another example of Israel breaking every single international law in the book to starve Palestinians and continue their genocide of Palestinians,” said Schofield. “If they are seizing us here on the high seas that is so clearly an act of kidnapping or piracy under international law. The question is, will any of our governments take action against them?”

Six Australian citizens are currently illegally detained by Israel. Along with Schofield, there’s Ethan Floyd, Surya McEwen, Bianca Webb Pullman, Neve O’Connor and Cameron Tribe, all in the clutches of the Israeli state. This is the fourth flotilla of foreign nationals to attempt to deliver aid to the Palestinians living in a hellscape created by Israel in the Gaza Strip since mid-2025.

To answer Zack’s question from the local position the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has said it will provide consular assistance, but that’s going to be a little tricky because of the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran. And as for foreign minister Penny Wong and PM Anthony Albanese, they’ve said nothing, which has long been their signature move on Israel since it commenced the Gaza genocide.

Total impunity needs international support

“It is possible that we are experiencing a very early interception by Israeli forces,” said Wiradjuri, Wailwan and Ngiyampaa man Ethan Floyd, who last checked in over social media about an hour before Schofield. So, it was about 11 pm on 29 April 2026 off the coast of Greece. “We are reporting a heavy drone presence and a heavy presence of military vessels in the Mediterranean Sea.”

Greenpeace was providing logistical support to the flotilla, and it reported that about an hour prior to Floyd recording his post, that Global Sumud vessels had received a message on the VHF radio from a sender identifying itself as the Israeli Navy and demanding the boats turn around. This was then followed by Israeli forces setting about jamming all VHF and other forms of communication.

As Floyd and Schofield both mentioned, the Israeli forces intercepting the flotilla of boats so far from its own waters was extremely unexpected. Illegally taking foreign nationals bound for Gaza hostage is no big deal for the Israelis, as they’ve done it many times. But usually, Tel Aviv waits for the activists to draw nearer to the coast of Gaza, and these ships had two weeks of sailing to get there.

There were 36 more Global Sumud vessels left sailing close to the coast of Crete on Thursday evening our time, and many more activist participants had not even left port by the time Israel took these unarmed foreign civilians by force. GSF organisers described the kidnappings as an act of piracy and a further example of how Israel is permitted to operate with total impunity far from its own borders.

Both Floyd and Schofield appeared surprisingly calm during delivery of their messages right before being taken hostage, even though it is well known that after the last Australians were captured last October, Israeli troops mistreated and abused them, depriving them of food and water, and subjected them to harsh conditions, while singling out some for extra special rough treatment.

“Our radios and cameras have all been jammed,” Floyd continued in his last communication. “We are communicating very ad hoc in our ability to communicate with other boats in our fleet.”

Couldn’t put humpty together again

The reason why Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong are sitting comfortably on their respective couches at home eating popcorn, as they watch the capture of Australians, while it is likely these citizens will suffer ill treatment, and they’re not even contemplating criticising Israel for what it is doing to them, is our ministers have no power on the global stage compared to Tel Aviv and the US.

While the entire edifice of international law has been in freefall since the obscene bloodbath and torture chamber that is the Gaza genocide started streaming 24/7 across social and alternative media in October 2023. At that time, much of the global community considered institutions, like the UN, could stop such a rights-eroding display of complete barbarity, but these days no one buys that.

The mass murders and the slaughter, the sniping of children in the head and heart, the denial of food to humans, the raping of Palestinian prisoners with metal rods up the arse, which is now a protected Israeli right, the trashing of an entire civilisation and the claim of the perpetrators that they are the victims and that to criticise their behaviour is racist has gone on in plain sight for 31 months now.

The US Trump administration-brokered 20 point peace plan and Gaza ceasefire commenced on 10 October 2025. This is not really a truce though, it’s a bluff to allow Tel Aviv to continue exterminating and ethnic cleansing Palestinians, whilst US president Donald Trump envisions redeveloping Gaza as a billionaires’ paradise, and Tel Aviv considers the Strip will soon be part of growing Greater Israel.

The United Nations Security Council passed resolution 2803 on 17 November 2025 that consisted of legitimising “President Donald J Trump’s Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict”. Globally renowned Gaza scholar Dr Norman Finkelstein described this as a simultaneous “revelation of moral insolvency and a declaration of war against Gaza”. And he claims it marks the death knell of the UN.

The US Trump administration has since invaded and kidnapped the president of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro on 3 January 2026 and held a gun to the head of the rest of his government, so US corporations could take over the nation’s oil reserves. And Washington is also inflicting an extreme energy blockade on Cuba, in the hope that it might take control of the country Castro liberated.

The US and Israel commenced a war of aggression on Iran on 28 February that continues on and has unforeseen global impacts coming up around the bend, whilst the catastrophic conflict has further given Tel Aviv an excuse to turn its genocidal warfare honed in the Gaza Strip onto southern Lebanon, displacing 10 percent of its population, as it attempts to settler colonise that territory.

Penny is asleep at the wheel

“We are a nonviolent peaceful humanitarian mission. Our destination is Gaza and our cargo is humanitarian aid,” said Floyd, who was completely aware that he was risking his life at that moment.

“Until we know more, please keep all eyes on the flotilla, please keep all eyes on Gaza, and when the time comes, we will be calling on you, if we are intercepted, to contact your local MP, to contact the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.”

Israel imposed its goods blockade on Gaza in 2007. As Finkelstein has explained, at times Tel Aviv calculated the occupied population and only let enough sustenance in so as to keep them just above starving level. The first Gaza Freedom Flotilla set sail in 2010, and Israeli troops boarded its vessels, just like on Thursday, and gunned down nine foreign nationals, with a tenth later dying in a coma.

The October 2025 Israeli captured Global Sumud crew experienced its first pushback from wanted war criminal Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet of psychopaths, when Israel bombed a Sumud vessel docked in Tunisia in early September last year, with several Australians onboard. And despite this potential killing of citizens, Penny and Anthony just kept chomping on popcorn.

While Ethan is seriously calling on us all to contact DFAT, he’s also aware that the top echelons of our government are more interested in keeping their seats than rocking any boats. So, let’s hope the Israeli troops don’t rough up our six fellow countrypersons too much.

“The question for the Australian community should be, how can we be allies with a country that is willing to break every single international law in the book to arrest and imprison and detain humanitarian volunteers on an humanitarian mission at literally two weeks sail from Israel itself,” Schofield concisely put to those listening.

However, it seems that Penny was heating up some more butter to pour on a fresh batch of popped corn, when her fellow citizen was hitting the nail on the head.