"The activity ended without exceptional events," Israeli military statement said on Sunday. "At this time the ship is being transferred to the port of Ashdod" along the coast of central Israel.

The intercepted vessel was one of the four ships that made up the Freedom Flotilla, which intended to break Israel’s nearly 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Adham Abu Salima, a spokesperson for Gaza's National Committee for Breaking the Siege, confirmed the attack by Israeli forces on the Freedom Flotilla ship, sayng the committee had lost contact with the flotilla members.

He added that 36 solidarity activists from 15 various countries were on board the vessel, which left the Italian city of Palermo on July 21.

A second boat that is part of the same group, the Swedish-flagged Freedom, is expected to arrive in the same area in the next couple of days, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

An international freedom flotilla, meant to draw the world's attention to Palestinians’ suffering under Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip, is reaching the coastal enclave's waters.

Gaza is where Palestinian resistance movements enjoy massive public support. The territory has seen brutal wars by Israel over the past years, the last one having been in the summer of 2014, when more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids.

The area continues to suffer from the destruction left behind from the war. Israel continues to prevent the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the blockade, since its imposition in June 2007, has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty.