Activists aboard a flotilla attempting to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza reported a drone attack on their boats Tuesday night as they crossed the Mediterranean off the coast of Crete. According to the reports, as many as seven vessels were damaged but no one was injured. Greg Stoker, an Austinite and veteran Army Ranger, said the vessel he and other veterans are sailing on was hit by a flashbang munition.
“They dropped a little popper on deck,” Stoker said. “[Other] boats experienced that as well, and also our VHF radio was hijacked by adversarial comms, and they started playing Abba…. These are just psychological operations, and they’re probably going to increase in intensity and frequency from here on out, every time the sun sets.”
The flotilla, called the Global Sumud Flotilla, is the fourth attempt this year from activists, journalists, doctors, and government officials to reach Gaza, which Israel has blockaded by land, air, and sea since 2007. Ships departed from Mediterranean ports earlier this month and have been in open waters for two weeks. Activists believe the drone attacks were initiated by the Israeli military. They say they will continue trying to reach Gaza and expect to do so within a week.
It’s unlikely the flotilla will be allowed to provide aid, however. Previous flotillas have been intercepted by Israeli authorities, with the activists, including Greta Thunberg, flown back to Europe. This time, Israel is promising to treat the activists much more harshly. On Sept. 1, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir referred to those aboard the flotilla as “terrorists,” threatening to imprison them for weeks in Israel’s Ketziot and Damon prisons, which have been used to hold people under harsh conditions. The Guardian reported last August that Ketziot’s guards systematically beat, starve, and humiliate prisoners and deny them clean water for drinking and showers and basic hygiene supplies like soap, towels, and sanitary pads.
“My constituent Greg Stoker and others on the Global Sumud Flotilla should be granted safe passage to deliver critical aid to those starving in Gaza.” – U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett
Stoker, who lives in South Austin, told us he joined the Army Rangers three days after graduating from Westlake High School in the 2000s. He served four deployments to Afghanistan as an assault team leader and field interrogator. He said that during his service he came to see the country’s military involvement in other countries as “a massive money laundering scheme to wash taxpayer money out of the public sector [and] into the private defense sector.” He went on to study at Columbia University and become an activist and journalist at MintPress News.
Stoker and his companions will not be surprised to receive harsh treatment from Israel, he said. “The Israeli military has a long and colorful history of murdering international aid workers and activists. The most recent example is from last year, when the Israeli Air Force massacred World Central Kitchen workers and their Western security detail in a drone strike. Yesterday, they killed an American family with three children in the south of Lebanon. They act with impunity and there will be no consequences.”
(The U.S. State Department disputes the claim that an Israeli attack killed Americans on Sept. 21, telling CNN, “While the situation is fluid, so far, indications are that the five killed were not U.S. citizens.”)
The flotilla’s organizers say any act to impede it would be a blatant violation of international law. Austin U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett and City Council members Mike Siegel, Zo Qadri, and Vanessa Fuentes, along with over 100 other Central Texans, joined the Austin for Palestine Coalition last week to urge Israel not to interfere with the flotilla. “My constituent Greg Stoker and others on the Global Sumud Flotilla should be granted safe passage to deliver critical aid to those starving in Gaza,” Doggett said on X. “Threats from extremist Ben-Gvir to criminalize humanitarian action must be rejected. Let’s continue to speak out to stop the killing, help those suffering, and demand compliance with international law.”
Stoker called what is happening in Gaza the moral test of this generation. “If you’ve ever asked yourself what you would have done during slavery and the underground railroad or the Nazi Holocaust, look at what you’re doing now and you have your answer,” Stoker said. “We are going to sail, the Israeli military is going to respond, and history will be our judge.”
This article appears in September 26 • 2025.
