Israel said the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) was carrying plenty of activists, but no aid. 

The flotilla, which consisted of 40 vessels, was intercepted on Thursday during Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a video featuring Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne walking in what he said was one of the largest vessels in the flotilla and showing that it was empty.

“When we and multiple other countries offered them to take this aid and bring it to the Gazans — we could facilitate its safe arrival — they flat out rejected it, and now we know why: because it was never about bringing aid to Gazans, but it was all about the headlines and the social media followings,” Elsdunne said in the video as he walked through the empty flotilla vessel.

Brian Cox, an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School and a retired U.S. Army judge advocate, pushed back on those arguing that the interception of the flotilla was illegal.

“International law provides very detailed rules regarding the conduct of a naval blockade and the interdiction of vessels attempting to breach a blockade. Available evidence indicates Israel followed these legal obligations to the letter when interdicting the Global Sumud Flotilla,” Cox told Fox News Digital.

In a thread on X, Cox pushed back against former British diplomat Carig Murray, who asserted that Israel lacked jurisdiction. 

Cox said that it did not matter if the fleet was on the high seas and not within 12 nautical miles of Israel.

“Vessels are subject to capture outside neutral waters if they are breaching or attempting to breach a blockade,” Cox wrote, citing the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea. He also dismissed the idea that the blockade in question had to be temporary, saying the manual does not have a provision requiring it to be “short term.”

In response, Murray pushed back, saying the manual is “useful as a guide to customary international law as it stood 30 years ago, but is no more than that.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Murray for comment.