Activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, including a Marine veteran from Illinois, said the Israeli navy is intercepting their vessels. Organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla said the Israeli navy started intercepting their vessels as they approached Palestinian territory on Wednesday.

The interception of aid ships began late Wednesday. Israel's foreign ministry said the flotilla was heading toward an active combat zone and was violating a lawful naval blockade. Israeli officials have told them to stop and transfer their aid through other channels into Gaza.

A spokesperson for the flotilla said Wednesday called Israel's interception an illegal attack. 

"Israel has illegally attacked the Global Sumud Flotilla, sailing to challenge Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza," the statement said in part. "Communications have gone dark, cameras are offline and the flotilla's boats are being boarded by armed and masked commando forces. This is yet another breach of international law - an attempt to silence those who dare confront Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people, while governments shield Israel with diplomatic cover and military aid. We name this for what it is: impunity, made possible by political cowardice and complicity."

There are nearly 50 boats among the flotilla, with about 500 people on board, carrying humanitarian aid, mainly food and medicine, for Palestinians. Marine Corps veteran Jessica Clotfelter, from Windsor, Illinois, and other military veterans are on a boat called the Ohwaylah in the Mediterranean Sea, bound for Gaza.

Clotfelter and Greg Stoker, organizer of the veterans' delegation on board the flotilla, spoke with CBS News Chicago on Zoom on Wednesday, about an hour before the Israeli navy intercepted the flotilla. At the time, they were about 90 nautical miles from Gaza, with about 12 naval vessels in sight.

"The fear's there, but if I talk to it, I understand why it's there, trying to keep us safe, and I try to make friends with it, but this is something that we've trained for and practice in our own exercises for the last month. So I feel like we're as prepared as we will ever be," Clotfelter said. "When I say train, just the drills that we run, interception drills, getting our life vests, our gear, our passport ready in the middle of the night."

Stoker stressed that they adhere to a strict policy of non-violence and non-resistance.

"We are a civilian aid mission, trying to break the siege into Gaza, and we are carrying humanitarian aid in accordance with international humanitarian and maritime law," he said.

Clotfelter was once on the security detail for Marine Helicopter Squadron One, the helicopters responsible for transporting the U.S. president and vice president.

She and her fellow veterans have been at sea for more than a month. They said they're carrying aid they want to deliver to Gaza, even though Israeli officials have said anyone trying to enter Gaza will be taken into custody. 

According to an August report from the UN, more than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, "marked by widespread starvation, destitution, and preventable deaths." The report attributed the famine to a "systematic obstruction" by Israel, and UN human rights chief Volker Türk accused Israel of using starvation as a method of warfare. 

"It is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of willful killing," Türk said in August. 

"The images that have been coming out of Gaza for the last two years … they're heartbreaking, they're gut-wrenching," Clotfelter said. "I mean, I've cried probably every single day on this boat as the violence since we've taken off on 31 August has escalated." 

In a statement Clotfelter's attorney, Farah Chalisa, called on elected representatives in Illinois "to meet their most basic duty: to protect their citizen, their veteran, and their constituent from unlawful detention and harm, and to call for her safe passage to Gaza." Chalisa's full statement: 

"Jessica and her fellow passengers are fulfilling a legal and moral duty to deliver humanitarian aid. International law is firmly on their side: the ICJ has ordered Israel to allow the delivery of aid, and the Geneva Conventions require the free passage of relief supplies. Jessica's decision to sail is not defiance but a legally protected act of conscience, courage, and humanity.

As her attorney, I call on the United States government, and especially Jessica's elected representatives, to meet their most basic duty: to protect their citizen, their veteran, and their constituent from unlawful detention and harm, and to call for her safe passage to Gaza. To allow her to be branded a terrorist or detained unlawfully would be a betrayal of both her service and America's obligations."