Richard Irvine-Brown, Matt Murphy and Sebastian Vandermeersch
BBC Verify

As we reported earlier, the last of the 42 Global Sumud Flotilla vessels has been intercepted.

Some of those vessels were seen arriving at Ashdod Naval Base in Israel on Thursday.

Some of the flotilla’s boats were transmitting AIS data, which meant they could be tracked on the MarineTraffic website.

The Estrella Y Manuel, for example, could be seen splitting away from the others on Wednesday night roughly 50 nautical miles from Gaza and changing course for Ashdod where it has been moored since Thursday evening.

As of Friday morning, AIS data put the last known positions of five of the flotilla at the port – the Estrella Y Manuel, the Adara, the Capten Nikos, the Ohwayla and the Seulle.

A statement from the flotilla on Thursday said hundreds of their people had been taken aboard the MSC Johannesburg, a Liberia-flagged container ship, seen 26 nautical miles from Ashdod at the time.

This morning it was harboured at the north jetty of Ashdod port.

BBC Verify has asked the Israel Defense Forces whether it plans to return the vessels to their owners and how long those detained will be held.

Update 14:21: MSC, which operates the Johannesburg, told BBC Verify that the flotilla organiser’s statement is “incorrect”, adding the Johannesburg “is a container ship not a naval vessel”. We have approached the Global Sumud Flotilla for a reponse.