New Delhi, Oct. 3 -- GAZA CITY - In the dead of night on day 666 of the Israel Palestine Conflict, Israeli naval commandos boarded a civilian armada headed toward Gaza, seizing multiple vessels and detaining hundreds of passengers as the enclave reported a fresh surge in casualties from bombardments. The operation ignited a new round of diplomatic protests and moved the fight over law, relief, and blockade from court filings and press rooms onto the moonlit surface of the Mediterranean.

Organizers billed the expedition as the "Global Sumud Flotilla," a civilian effort to spotlight Gaza's dwindling fuel, oxygen, and medical supplies while testing the boundaries of a maritime cordon that has, in their view, become a wall. Israel, saying th...