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.

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.

Palestinian terrorists and members of the Red Cross gather near vehicles on the day Hamas hands over deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

There should be no confusion about Hamas. Its October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians — through murder, rape, torture, and kidnapping — was not a tragedy of war. It was a celebration of cruelty. The terrorists filmed themselves committing atrocities because they wanted the world to see.

And yet, in much of the West, the instinct was not outrage but doubt.

“Maybe Israel exaggerated.” “Maybe it was fabricated.” Some even dared to claim that Israel itself was guilty. This denial is not born of facts; it is a failure of imagination. Western societies, built on compromise and empathy, cannot accept that an enemy could openly glorify barbarism.

Israelis do not have this illusion. They have lived beside it for decades.

The Power of Propaganda

Hamas has long known it cannot defeat Israel on the battlefield. But it has mastered a different weapon: the manipulation of Western emotions.

The phenomenon often called Pallywood, uses staged funerals, dramatized footage, and unverified accusations to shape international opinion.

In 2000, the Muhammad al-Durrah case was broadcast as proof of Israeli brutality. Later investigations revealed manipulation, but the lie stuck. In 2023, when the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza was struck, Hamas instantly accused Israel. Western outlets repeated the claim without evidence. Hours later, US and European intelligence confirmed it was a Palestinian rocket misfire. By then, riots had spread worldwide.

Israel, meanwhile, produces meticulous evidence; satellite images, forensic reports, verified video. These are brushed aside as “public relations,” while shaky Hamas cellphone clips dominate headlines. This is not journalism. It is collaboration.

Two Moral Universes

This problem runs deeper than propaganda. It is a clash of civilizations.

In Hamas’ world, honor is measured in violence. Compromise is weakness. Martyrdom is glorified. Civilians are not protected, they are weaponized. Hamas has never hidden this. Its leaders openly admit it.

Hamas official Fathi Hammad once declared: “We desire death as you desire life.”

The same Hammad bragged on Al-Aqsa TV: “For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry … This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly. This is something we take great pride in.”

This is not misinterpretation. It is confession.

Israel operates in an entirely different moral universe. Rooted in Jewish values such as tikkun olam — “repairing the world” — it values life even while forced to fight.

Israel warns civilians to evacuate, drops leaflets, places phone calls, and risks its own soldiers to reduce civilian harm.

There is no equivalence here. One side clings to life. The other exalts death.

October 7 Proved the Point

On October 7, Hamas carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Approximately 1,200 civilians were slaughtered. More than 360 young people were gunned down at a music festival. Women were raped beside the bodies of their murdered friends. Parents were executed in front of their children. Infants and Holocaust survivors alike were dragged into Gaza as hostages.

When Israel reported these crimes, many in the West scoffed, until Hamas’ own videos surfaced. The terrorists had documented their sadism because, to them, it was a victory to celebrate.

The evidence was irrefutable. Hamas’ cruelty was not incidental. It was the point.

Why Arab States Stay Silent

Even Arab governments understand this truth. Egypt closed its Rafah border, fearing infiltration. Jordan’s King Abdullah bluntly declared, “No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt.”

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, while publicly critical of Israel, privately admitted Hamas had dragged Gaza into disaster.

They know Hamas’ history: destabilizing Jordan in the 1960s and 70s, smuggling weapons into Egypt, serving as Iran’s proxy. That is why Arab states avoid embracing Hamas, even while Western activists romanticize it.

So who bears responsibility for the cruelty? Not Israel, which agonizes over civilian casualties. Not the Jewish people, who mourn every innocent life lost, even those of their enemies. The accountability lies squarely with Hamas and with the culture of death it has cultivated for decades.

The West must stop projecting its own values onto this conflict. Israel does not exaggerate the threats it faces. It confronts them daily, with courage and moral clarity. Hamas kills because it chooses to.

Every time the Western media parrots Hamas’s accusations, every time academics describe terrorists as “resistance,” every time protesters chant for intifada, they are not defending human rights, they are enabling cruelty.

It is no longer enough to speak in generalities. Major Western institutions must be held to account. When The New York Times rushed to blame Israel for the Al-Ahli Hospital blast, it spread a blood libel that fueled riots. When the BBC repeated Hamas’ claims without evidence, it legitimized lies. When the United Nations Human Rights Council condemns Israel more than every other country on earth combined, it signals to Hamas that the world will always look the other way.

This is not impartiality. It is complicity.

It is time for the West to accept reality: Israel fights to survive. Hamas fights to kill. That is the only moral distinction that matters.

Sabine Sterk is the CEO of Time To Stand Up For Israel.