Israel halts another Gaza aid flotilla as MEPs demand activists’ release | Gaza flotilla

A humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza aimed at breaking Israel’s naval blockade was stopped by the Israeli military, days after the detention of activists on an earlier flotilla sparked international outrage and widespread protests.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and organizers of Thousands of Madleens to Gaza said in a statement that nine sailing ships flying Italian and French flags and a motor ship registered in East Timor were stopped and boarded in international waters approximately 120 nautical miles off the Gaza coast starting at 04.34 on Wednesday.

This came as 82 parliamentarians from the Council of Europe parliamentary assembly and the European parliament called for the immediate and unconditional release of activists in Israel’s Gaza Sumud flotilla (GSF) last week. According to Israeli media reports, at least seven of the more than 450 people detained are still in custody.

“We call on all governments, international organizations and the international community to condemn the interference with the Global Sumud flotilla and the abduction/detention of civilians in international waters for humanitarian purposes,” the group of parliamentarians said.

The last fleet that set out from Türkiye was carrying doctors, nurses and journalists, as well as medicines, ventilators and nutritional supplies for healthcare facilities in Gaza, on a ferry converted into a floating hospital.

of the fleet live scout He said all ships were stopped by 10 a.m. on Wednesday. In the statement made by the organizers, it was stated that the Israeli army has no authority in international waters and the fleet did not cause any damage. He said their crew had been “kidnapped.”

The statement included the following: “This seizure is a blatant violation of international law and contrary to the binding decisions of the international court of justice calling for unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza. Our volunteers are not subject to Israeli jurisdiction and cannot be criminalized because they are taking part in a humanitarian mission aimed at delivering aid or sailing in international waters. Their detention is arbitrary, unlawful and terminated immediately.” must be accomplished.”

The Israeli foreign ministry confirmed that the boats were seized and that those on board would be processed and transferred to an Israeli port for deportation. “Another futile attempt to bypass a legal naval blockade and enter a war zone ended in nothing,” a social media post said.

Describing the incident as “an act of piracy”, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that every attempt was made to release Turkish citizens held by Israel and return them to Türkiye, and that coordination was ensured with other countries regarding their citizens.

Among those detained is French MP Mélissa Camara from the Ecologists Party. “Israel has once again violated international law,” he said in the statement sent by his deputy. “What is happening is essentially an act of kidnapping, targeting individuals whose sole purpose is to help lift the illegal blockade of Gaza while they are sailing in international waters that are clearly not under Israeli jurisdiction.”

Last week, Israel stopped nearly 40 ships and detained more than 450 activists, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Some activists claimed that they were subjected to physical and verbal abuse by Israeli forces and were denied medical attention during their detention.

Thunberg said after returning to Sweden on Tuesday: “Personally, I don’t want to share what I’ve been exposed to, I don’t want there to be quotes about Greta being tortured because that’s not the story here.

“I can talk about all the children who couldn’t go to school, all the children who were amputated, all the children left without parents, all the houses that were bombed. I can also talk about the extreme physical abuse and torture we were subjected to in prison.”

The Israeli foreign ministry rejected all allegations of mistreatment of squadron members as “brazen lies” and wrote on social media: “All legal rights of the detainees are fully protected.”

He stated that Thunberg “did not complain to Israeli authorities about any of these ridiculous and baseless allegations, because they never occurred.”

In an audio statement after his release from Israeli custody on Tuesday, US activist David Adler described “a five-day nightmare in which our most fundamental rights were serially and systematically violated.”

“We were stopped by Israeli naval forces in an illegal and violent manner,” Adler said. “We were kidnapped, robbed, zip-tied, blindfolded, and sent to a concentration camp in a police van with no access to food, water, or legal support. And we were subjected to on-and-off psychological torture for the next five days.”

The Oxford PhD student said conditions at Ketziot, a high-security prison in the Negev desert, were “not normal prison conditions at all”. He said: “From the moment we stepped onto that tarmac after the intervention, we were violently brought to our knees and forced to surrender… We were deprived of even the most basic things, such as critical access to insulin for diabetic detainees in the fleet. In short, we were treated like terrorists, just like us.” [the Israeli] Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir made the promise.”

Meanwhile, South African activists, including Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, told reporters back in South Africa that they were being treated harsher because of their government’s case at the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide. Fatima Hendricks and Zaheera Soomar said their headscarves were forcibly removed and they were forced to strip naked in front of Israeli soldiers; They said this had not happened to female Muslim activists in other countries.

Ben-Gvir said he was “proud” of the staff’s behavior at Ketziot. He said of the activists in a statement: “They should have a good idea of ​​the conditions in Ketziot prison and think twice before approaching Israel again.”