Sailing boats, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla aiming to reach Gaza and break Israel’s naval blockade, sail off Koufonisi islet, Greece, Sept. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis

Italy’s navy will stop following the international flotilla heading to Gaza once it gets within 150 nautical miles (278 km) of the shore, the Italian defense ministry said on Tuesday.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, consisting of more than 40 civilian boats carrying parliamentarians, lawyers, and activists including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, aims to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which has been ruled by the terrorist group Hamas for nearly two decades, and deliver some aid to the Palestinian enclave.

Once the convoy reaches the 150 nautical miles limit, the Italian frigate accompanying it will stop, “as communicated several times in recent days,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ship will issue two warnings to activists, with the second and final one foreseen at around 00:00 GMT, when the flotilla is expected to get within the stated distance, the statement added.

Earlier on Tuesday, an Italian spokeswoman for the flotilla, Maria Elena Delia, said that activists had been informed about the government’s plans to have the navy ship stop and turn back to avoid “a diplomatic incident” with Israel.

She said the flotilla had no intention of heeding Italy’s warnings not to get closer to the shore.

Italy and Spain deployed navy vessels last week to assist the flotilla, after activists said it was hit by drones armed with stun grenades and irritants in international waters off Greece, but without any intention to engage militarily.

Delia said activists were bracing for another strike in the coming hours. “Israel will probably attack us tonight, because all the signals point to this happening,” she said in a video on Instagram.

Israel did not respond to flotilla accusations that it was behind last week’s attacks, but it has vowed to use any means to prevent the boats from reaching Gaza, arguing that its blockade is legal as part of its war against Hamas terrorists who openly seek Israel’s destruction.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has said he expects flotilla boats to be intercepted in the open sea and activists to face arrest.

On Tuesday, Crosetto made a “last appeal” to flotilla members to accept a compromise proposal to drop aid in Cyprus and avoid a confrontation with Israeli forces. Flotilla representatives have repeatedly refused the offer.

Israel began its Gaza offensive after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages.

USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, Sept. 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

The first group of about 400 Iranians expected to be deported from the US under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown were due to land in Qatar on Tuesday before flying to Tehran, a US and an Iranian official said.

The group included both convicted criminals and people who had entered the country illegally, said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The transfer marks an unusual moment of coordination between two nations at loggerheads over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is purely civilian but Washington asserts is aimed at building a nuclear bomb.

The Iranian official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, played down the idea of any political deal with the US, which joined Israeli air strikes on Iran and its nuclear facilities in June. The matter was consular, not political, the official said.

CALL TO RESPECT IRANIANS‘ RIGHTS

The Iranian foreign ministry’s director general for parliament affairs, Hossein Noushabadi, said the US was “planning to deport around 400 Iranians, most of whom entered the country illegally, in line with the new anti-immigrant approach of the US government.”

“In the first step, they decided to deport 120 Iranians who entered the US illegally, most of whom through Mexico,” he told the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Noushabadi called on Washington to respect the rights of Iranian migrants in the United States.

The first group of 120 would reach Iran in the next one or two days, he said.

A US-chartered flight took off from Louisiana on Monday and was scheduled to arrive in Qatar late on Tuesday so the deportees could be transferred to a Tehran-bound flight, the US official said.

The White House and the US State Department did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said it had not been consulted by the authorities and could not comment on the specifics of any case.

“In general terms, states must ensure access to asylum, due process, and respect for the principle of non-refoulement, meaning that people in need of international protection must not be returned to a place where they face risk of harm,” UNHCR said.

TRUMP’S DEPORTATION PLANS

Some of the Iranians had volunteered to leave after being in detention centers for months, and some had not, according to The New York Times, which first reported the deportations.

Noushabadi was quoted as saying: “Some [returnees] had residence permits but due to reasons stated by the US immigration office they were included in the list. Of course, their own consent was obtained for their return.”

Trump plans to deport a record number of people living in the US without legal status, after high illegal border crossings under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.

However, his administration has struggled to increase deportation levels, even as it has created new avenues to send migrants to countries other than their own.

Among those avenues was an agreement with Panama in February that saw dozens of people from different countries, including Iran, deported there.

A protester uses a pole to break a window at Milano Centrale railway station, during a demonstration that is part of a nationwide “Let’s Block Everything” protest in solidarity with Gaza, with activists also calling for a halt to arms shipments to Israel, in Milan, Italy, Sept. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Around 15 percent of Italians consider physical attacks on Jewish people “entirely or fairly justifiable,” according to a survey published on Tuesday, as protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza continue across the country.

Some 18 percent of those interviewed also believe antisemitic graffiti on walls and other public spaces is legitimate, according to the survey, conducted on Sept. 24-26 by the pollster SWG among a national sample of 800 adults.

Roughly a fifth of respondents said it was reasonable to attack professors who expressed pro-Israeli positions or for businesses to reject Israeli customers, after some episodes were reported by Italian media.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long complained of growing antisemitism in European cities, in the Western press and social media, and in elite US universities.

Italy, scarred by 1938 antisemitic statutes under fascism, has laws punishing racial discrimination and hate crimes. The SWG poll showed that 85 percent of respondents believe attacking Jews is “not very or not at all justifiable.”

Last week, protesters in Milan and other Italian cities clashed with police, while dockworkers blocked some ports in solidarity with Palestinians, saying they wanted to stop Italy being used as a staging post for weapons bound for Israel.

The SWG poll, however, said a majority of Italians disapproved of the clashes with police and also the attempt to shut the ports.

PM MELONI IS STRONG SUPPORTER OF ISRAEL

The demonstrators want the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to pressure Israel to halt its military campaign in Gaza. Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during a surprise invasion of southern Israel.

Meloni’s government has been a steadfast supporter of Israel and refused this month to follow other G7 nations such as Britain, Canada, and France in recognizing Palestinian statehood.

Rome says recognition should come only after all Israeli hostages are freed and Hamas is excluded from any future government role.

Last week, addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu accused those countries that have recognized Palestinian statehood of sending a message that “murdering Jews pays off,” a reference to Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel.

The SWG poll also found that a majority of those interviewed backed an international aid flotilla mission seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and deliver supplies. It includes Italian activists and lawmakers.