The IDF announced that they intercepted and searched the vessel which had tried to "breach the maritime blockade."

RT's Nadezhda Kevorkova who is on board the Marianne, the flotilla's flagship, said by phone that a military helicopter had been flying above the flotilla as well as an unknown military plane "flying very low above the water" near the activists' vessels.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition lost contact with the flagship of the flotilla at 10:57pm GMT, the organization said. The vessel was some 100 nautical miles from its destination when it happened.

The Israeli navy has engaged the vessel, boarded and searched it, the Israeli Defense Forces' spokesman Peter Lerner confirmed. He said the Marianne is now being escorted to Ashdod Port after ignoring "repeated appeals to change course."