Activists say they were trying to bring aid, but Israeli leaders slammed the action. The majority of activists were intercepted before they reached Gaza's shores.
Dozens showed their support Thursday in Chicago by floating down the river downtown.
Israeli authorities are now preparing to deport hundreds of pro-Gaza activists picked up in the Mediterranean Sea who were trying to deliver humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged enclave. Among them an Illinois veteran with a record of reaching out to those in need.
Marine veteran Jessica Clotfelter served on the presidential helicopter detail and knows about high stakes security. She boarded the Global Samud flotilla in Barcelona, in response to a call for veterans to get involved. She says Israel's blockade of Gaza is illegal and the effort to deliver humanitarian aid is sanctioned under international law.
As Israeli naval forces boarded the flotilla's ships large and small in international waters, Israel denounced the flotilla as a provocation designed to delegitimize Israel's security concerns. Some activists live streamed the action before pitching their phones into the sea. Among them climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, along with elected officials from the European Unio. The interdictions sparked protests around the world.
In Chicago, demonstrators paddled down the Chicago River in solidarity, with federal law enforcement patrolled nearby.
"Jessica is not a threat she is a veteran who once risked her life for this country and now she risks her life again for the sake of humanity," said Farah Chalisa, an attorney for Clotfelter.
Clotfelter is among those who hoped the flotilla's sheer size would frustrate Israeli forces and help establish a humanitarian corridor by sea, given little aid is reaching Gaza by land.
READ MORE | Greta Thunberg, other activists detained as Israeli military intercepts Gaza-bound aid ships
The 36-year old woman's mother, Shelly Clotfelter, spoke to ABC7 from the Marine's family home in Windsor, Illinois, an hour east of Springfield.
"She has always been from a young child had a soft heart for anyone who was treated poorly in school or any people that are oppressed," Shelly Clotfelter said. "She loves serving others cannot handle sitting here and doing nothing and she felt like her face compared her to do this."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said 450 Israeli police officers have been dispatched to the southern port city of Ashdod to assist with processing of the activists, all on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
Jessica Clotfelter is expected to be repatriated to the United States, but her fight for Gaza will carry on.
"Knowing her heart, she has friends there that close and she's not going to rest until changes are made," Shelly Clotfelter said. "Considering at 17 she came home from school and, 'I'm joining the Marine Corps.' I just know that I worry, but I know that with her faith that she is in good hands."
Jessica Clotfelter said to her mother she thought they would be intercepted a couple of days ago, so they got closer perhaps than they expected, but she was not sure what the outcome would be if they don't make it to Gaza. She last texted with her mother a couple of days ago from Barcelona