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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia vowed on Thursday to take legal action against Israel after some 200 international activists, including Malaysian citizens, were abducted at sea as they carried aid for Gaza aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla.

The GSF mission, which involved representatives from 45 countries, carried over 400 people, including 34 Malaysians. It was scheduled to arrive at Gaza’s coast on Thursday afternoon, but the journey was disrupted after several vessels were intercepted by the Israeli navy.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that 12 citizens were taken in international waters while carrying lifesaving aid to Gaza and demanded their immediate and unconditional release.

It said that “the criminal and cowardly acts of aggression by Israeli forces against the Global Sumud Flotilla” constituted a “flagrant violation of international law, including international maritime law, international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”

Hours later, more Malaysians, who were aboard other boats, lost contact with their mission’s organizer, the Sumud Nusantara Command Center in Kuala Lumpur.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in a series of X posts that 23 were missing and that he would take “all lawful and legally grounded measures to hold the Zionist regime accountable.”

Among the Malaysian nationals held by the Israeli military are popular singer Zizi Kirana and actress Ardell Aryana, who shared voice notes describing how Israelis tried to stop her boat by using water cannons.

“At first, they came in small groups and they gave a warning to stop, but we did not stop because our mission is to go straight to Gaza,” she said.

The capture of the flotilla crew has sent a wave of outrage across the country, where the mission to break Israel’s illegal blockade and starvation of Gaza is supported by both the government and the public.

Lavisha Sukumaran, a lawyer, recalled a video shared by a flotilla participant talking about how he was doing this for his children.

“He doesn’t want them to grow up in a world where people turn their backs on each other,” she said.

“It’s easy to talk about it, make social media posts about the genocide, participate in rallies, and all that. It takes a different kind of bravery to actually get to the group, risk your actual life, in hopes of making a change. It is so amazing and terrifying.”

For Dina Sallehudin, a content creator, the activists are “the bravest and kindest people, who are willing to risk their lives to make this mission happen.”

Some, like Ili Liyana Mokhtar, an editor, expected more action from the Malaysian government, including pressure on the ongoing UN General Assembly and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which it chairs this year.

“The Malaysian government has both a moral and diplomatic responsibility to act and act fast,” she told Arab News.

“The Sumud Flotilla wasn’t carrying weapons — it carried milk for babies, medicine for the sick, and food for the hungry. It carried hope ... It’s about standing up for basic human dignity. When children are starving, silence is not neutrality — it’s complicity.”

The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights network’s co-chair, Charles Santiago, released a statement saying that Israel’s interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla was “nothing short of state piracy.”

He added that it “has no jurisdiction there, no legal grounds to detain civilians,” in international waters.

“It arrogantly hijacks a humanitarian mission, proving once again its utter disregard for international law,” Santiago said.

“The world cannot look away: silence is complicity, and every hour of inaction emboldens Israel’s criminal blockade of Gaza.”

MANCHESTER: At least two people were killed after an assailant drove a car into pedestrians and stabbed a security guard near a synagogue in England on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, British police said.

Greater Manchester Police said the suspect, who was believed to be carrying a bomb, was shot after they rushed to the scene at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the Crumpsall district of the city in northern England.

Police responded after a witness said a car had rammed members of the public and that one man had been stabbed. The suspect was believed to be dead but officers could not confirm this “due to safety issues surrounding suspicious items on his person,” with a bomb disposal unit called to the scene.

Two people have been arrested in the attack, which has been declared a “terrorist incident,” added Laurence Taylor, assistant commissioner in counterterrorism policing at London’s Metropolitan Police force.

“He has a bomb!”

A video shared on social media and verified by Reuters showed police shooting a man inside the synagogue’s perimeter, while another man lay on the floor in a pool of blood, appearing to wear a traditional Jewish head covering.

“He has a bomb, go away!” an armed police officer shouted to onlookers as he tried to wave away members of the public.

As well as the two people who were confirmed dead, three others were in a serious condition.

After the attack, police were seen ushering a large group of mostly Jewish elderly men — some in tears, many looking shocked — away from the synagogue. Some were wearing white robes, others were in suits and wearing a skullcap.

“I’m appalled by the attack at a synagogue in Crumpsall,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said as he rushed away early from a European political gathering in Copenhagen to return to Britain to chair an emergency meeting.

“The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more horrific,” Starmer said.

Police said a large number of people had been worshipping inside the synagogue at the time and the building had since been evacuated.

“We are grateful to the member of the public whose quick response to what they witnessed allowed our swift action, and as a result the offender was prevented from entering the synagogue,” a police spokesperson said.

Britain’s King Charles said he was “deeply shocked and saddened” to learn of the attack, “especially on such a significant day for the Jewish community.”

Suspect was “stabbing anyone near him”

A neighbor, Chava Lewin, said she had been told that the car had been driving erratically before crashing into the gates of the synagogue.

“The second he got out of the car he started stabbing anyone near him. He went for the security guard and tried to break into the synagogue,” she told British media. “Someone barricaded the door. Everyone is in utter shock.”

Starmer said that additional police were being deployed to synagogues across the country, adding “we will do everything to keep our Jewish community safe.”

Yom Kippur is the most sacred day on the Jewish calendar when even many non-regular synagogue-goers take time to pray and all road traffic stops in Israel.

Britain reported its second worst year in modern times for antisemitism in 2024 with more than 3,500 incidents being recorded, reflecting sustained levels of hatred toward Jews, the Community Security Trust, which provides security to Jewish organizations across Britain, said earlier this year.

Levels of antisemitism rose to record levels in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza that has devastated the Palestinian enclave.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Britain has suffered a number of militant attacks, with the worst being the July 2005 suicide bombings in the London transport network which killed 52 people.

More recently, a 2017 suicide bomb attack at the end of an Ariana Grande pop concert in Manchester killed 22 people and injured hundreds.

British police have in recent years also warned about the threat from organized far-right terrorism.