Israel seized a Gaza-bound aid boat on Monday morning, preventing activists onboard, including Greta Thunberg, from reaching the starving Palestinian territory.

The Madleen departed from Italy on June 1 aiming to break Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza, which has left over two million people on the brink of catastrophic famine.

Throughout its journey, Israeli politicians had issued increasingly violent threats against the humanitarian mission.

With the boat just 100 miles from Gaza, Israeli forces "forcibly intercepted" the vessel in international waters around 3:02 AM local time, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said in a statement.

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"If you see this video we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters," Thunberg said in a pre-recorded video shared by the group.

Footage posted to social media showed Madleen's crew holding their hands up, as well as the boat's deck covered in an unknown white substance sprayed by Israeli forces, which reportedly caused the crew members' eyes to burn.

After seizing the vessel, Israel's foreign ministry posted a picture of the activists all in orange life jackets being offered water and sandwiches, disparagingly referring to them as "celebrities" and mocking Madleen as "the selfie ship."

It added that the boat was being taken to Ashdod port.

With Israel facing widespread accusations of genocide and crimes against humanity over its campaign of mass killing and starvation in Gaza, international outrage grew over Monday's events.

"Israel interception of Madleen violates international law," Anges Callamard, head of Amnesty International, wrote on X. "As the occupying power (as recognized by the ICJ), Israel has a legal obligation to ensure civilians in Gaza have sufficient food and medicine. They should have let Madleen deliver its humanitarian supplies to Gaza."

She added: "There is an on-going genocide. Military occupation. Apartheid. Palestinians in Gaza are starved. Humanitarian workers are targeted. Humanitarian aid is blocked."

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations slammed Israel for "a blatant act of international piracy and state terrorism."

"The Israeli occupation has no legal right to blockade the Gaza coast, much less to drop chemical weapons on humanitarian aid boats and abduct their passengers in international waters," it said in a statement.