GAZA CITY (AFP) - Several people were wounded as Israeli commandos stormed at least one ship loaded with pro-Palestinian activists bound for Gaza, Hamas-run TV reported, showing pictures of the wounded.
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Gaza's Al-Aqsa television showed footage of black-clad Israeli commandos descending from helicopters and clashing with activists, as well as several wounded people lying on the deck of the ship.
The television network said two activists had been killed and some 50 wounded. The Israeli military declined to comment on the report and organisers of the aid convoy said they were no longer in contact with the boats.
The ships, carrying more than 700 passengers, were on the last leg of a high-profile mission to deliver some 10,000 tonnes of building and other supplies to Gaza, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007.
Huwaida Arraf, chairman of the Free Gaza Movement, had earlier told AFP by phone from the boat Challenger 1 that the ships had expected a confrontation with Israel late Monday morning or early afternoon.
The boats had started heading towards Gaza from international waters of Cyprus at 3:00pm (1200 GMT) Sunday, with organisers saying they hoped to enter Gaza waters during the daylight hours.
About six hour after their departure, three Israeli missile boats left their naval base in the northern coastal city of Haifa on a mission to intercept the flotilla, reporters on board one of the vessels said before being told to turn off their phones.
Israel has slammed as "illegal" the convoy's attempt to break the Gaza blockade and warned it would intercept the ships, tow them to the Ashdod port and detain the activists before seeking to deport them.
In Gaza, anti-siege activists on Sunday called on the international community to ensure the protection of the "Freedom Flotilla" which had been aiming to arrive on Saturday but was repeatedly delayed.
"I am asking the international community to protect these boats from the Israeli threat," independent Palestinian MP Jamal al-Khudari told a news conference on a boat anchored outside the Gaza port.
"If Israel blocks them, they have a strategy for getting here," said Khudari, who heads the Gaza-based Committee to Lift the Siege. He did not elaborate.
With the flotilla expected to approach at some stage over the next 24 hours, Gaza fishermen took to the sea flying Palestinian flags as well as those of Greece, Ireland, Sweden and Turkey -- all of which sent boats.
Demonstrators also released scores of balloons with pictures tied to them of children killed during Israel's massive 22-day offensive against Gaza that ended in January 2009.
Khudari said the convoy, which is carrying hundreds of civilians and a handful of European MPs, would stop outside Gaza territorial waters before attempting to make landfall.
It will travel "in two stages," he said: "First they will stop in international waters at 30 nautical miles (from Gaza), and tomorrow (Monday) they will reach the shore."
Audrey Bomse, legal adviser to the Free Gaza Movement, said the activists were considering sending "a second wave" of boats later this week.
Israel has called the convoy a media stunt, insisting the humanitarian situation is stable in Gaza despite reports to the contrary from aid agencies and offering to deliver the supplies through its own land crossings.
"This is a provocation intended to delegitimise Israel," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Saturday.
"If the flotilla had a genuine humanitarian goal, then its organisers should have transferred something for the abducted soldier Gilad Shalit as well," he said of the Israeli snatched by militants in 2006 and held by the Hamas Islamist movement which runs the enclave.
The activists responded on their website that they had offered to take in a letter for Shalit from his family but received no response from their lawyer.
Hamas's refusal to release Shalit is cited by Israel as one of the main reasons for imposing the economic blockade on Gaza in the wake of the group's violent takeover of the territory.
Pro-Palestinian activists have landed in Gaza five times, with another three unsuccessful attempts since their first such voyage in August 2008. The latest is their biggest operation.