On the evening of August 31, three Israeli C-130 transports climbed out of Nevatim Air Base. Two of them landed at Sigonella in Sicily around 18:40 CEST and refueled for about three and a half hours before heading back. At the same time, two Nahshon ISR jets were tracked circling over the Strait of Sicily, keeping an eye on every ship below.

It lines up almost too neatly with the Global Sumud Flotilla’s schedule. The convoy left Barcelona on August 29, regrouped in Tunis on August 30, and by September 1 was steaming past Sicily and Malta with Greta Thunberg on board alongside volunteers from over forty countries. You might recall activists spotting drones buzzing their vessels near Menorca—not exactly friendly skies.

Israel has a record of intercepting flotillas and deporting participants in international waters. Thunberg herself was turned back not long ago. Staging C-130s at Sigonella and orbiting ISR platforms so close feels like positioning for a maritime shadow operation.

If any of those flights drift into Italian or Maltese airspace, expect swift protests from Rome and Valletta. And if an Israeli ship or helicopter boards a humanitarian vessel again, we could see a diplomatic firestorm—not just words in the papers, but real regional fallout.

Keep an eye on AIS signals from the flotilla over the next couple of days. If you spot another C-130 loitering off Sicily around September 3 or 4, consider it your warning that tensions are heating up.

Will the aid convoy slip through unchallenged or meet another blockade at sea? We’re watching the flight paths as closely as you are to find out.

PS: The Global Sumud Flotilla did depart Barcelona on August 31 but ran into stormy weather and turned back to port on September 1 for safety. Organisers relaunched the convoy on September 2, and it’s now steaming toward its Tunis rendezvous before heading past Sicily and Malta again.

PS2: The flotilla is still moving on and Italian MP’s are boarding it.

PS3: From followers remarks on Facebook “..When Israel launches a space satellite, they always have the same kind of mission, this has nothing to do with the flotilla. Most of the aircraft deployed are used to follow on the mission, and see if any debris or other stuff can fall also on shipping in the Med…“

It makes sense to wonder if those C-130s and ISR jets were simply chasing rocket stages after the Ofek-19 launch. Israel does fly support missions whenever it sends a satellite into orbit—not just for telemetry and debris tracking, but to keep air and sea traffic clear of falling bits.

Still, when you look at what unfolded over Sicily and the Strait of Sicily a few days ago, a different picture emerges. These were three Hercules transports touching down at Sigonella for only a few hours, paired with two Gulfstream-based ISR aircraft loitering in tight circles right over the Flotilla’s route. Their sensors aren’t optimized for tracking rocket fragments—they’re configured for maritime domain awareness.

The timing lines up almost too neatly with the Global Sumud Flotilla’s path from Barcelona to Gaza, especially with high-profile passengers like Greta Thunberg on board. Past patrols and drone overflights in that same corridor were clearly aimed at monitoring aid ships. And Israel’s history of intercepting and deporting flotilla volunteers adds weight to the idea that these flights were about more than space debris.

That said, dual-purpose missions aren’t unheard of. It’s possible the aircraft carried out standard post-launch safety sweeps while also gathering maritime intelligence. The real clue will be what happens next—if we see these ISR patterns shift back to typical launch-support profiles, or if they continue to shadow civilian vessels.

PS4: Prime Minister Robert Abela stated he was unaware of any aircraft entering Malta’s airspace irregularly and confirmed he had not been contacted by the Israeli government regarding the flights. And Italian politician Angelo Bonelli criticised the use of Italian bases by Israeli military aircraft, calling it “unacceptable” amid Israel’s actions in Gaza. Italian defense authorities clarified that the landing was a pre-authorized technical stop for refuelling, handled exclusively by US personnel, with no equipment onboard. ( https://timesofmalta.com/article/pm-unaware-israeli-planes-irregular-airspace-central-mediterranean.1115709 )

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