I don't think people are realizing what's happening with the Global Sumud Flotilla: it's potentially becoming extremely consequential. Fact is, at this stage the flotilla is effectively escorted by multiple warships from 3 major countries: Spain, Italy and Turkyie. The warships are all nominally there to "assist" and "rescue" the flotilla in case shit happens - that's the official story - BUT: - They obviously have a very strong deterrence effect, so Israel will think twice before attacking - I frankly cannot believe they wouldn't act if the flotilla gets attacked as this would be a major PR disaster for the governments in questions: your own citizens (including some MPs) getting attacked by Israel in front of your eyes in international waters (or Palestine territorial waters) and you watch it happen from your warship? Hard to see this happen, this is politically suicidal for a government. - Logically speaking, why send actual warships if you haven't accepted the possibility there might be a confrontation? As the old military adage goes "don't draw your sword unless you're prepared to use it": if it was purely about assistance and rescue, they could have sent coastguard boats for instance. The "rescue and assist" framing is probably about plausible deniability to retain the most flexibility in the actions they can take, and in narrative management. I'm not sure what's going to happen but as far as I can see there are 3 options: 1) Israel doesn't attack, the flotilla reaches Gaza, which means the blockade is breached and which is a major precedent 2) Israel attacks and the warships of all 3 nations let it happen, which will create a major public opinion disaster 3) Israel attacks and the warships fight them, and you effectively have war between NATO countries and Israel I think you'll agree that whatever happens, it's consequential no matter what. What I suspect is that the governments in question are betting on Israel blinking first but that they're willing to follow through if Israel calls their bluff, they wouldn't have deployed the warships otherwise.