AVIV TELIn an attempt to lift the Israeli embargo on Palestinian territory, the Israeli military seized an aid ship headed for Gaza on Sunday. The Israeli military detained 21 foreign journalists and activists and confiscated all of the cargo, including food, medicine, and baby formula.
Just before midnight on Saturday, the Israeli military aggressively intercepted the ship in international seas approximately 40 nautical miles from Gaza, shutting off the ship’s cameras and communication, according to the coalition that runs the vessel Handala.
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The group said in a statement that all of the cargo was civilian, non-military, and meant to be directly distributed to a population that was being deliberately starved and experiencing medical collapse as a result of Israel’s illegal embargo.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli military. Early on Sunday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced on X that the Navy had halted the ship and was bringing it ashore.
It was the second coalition-operated ship that Israel has blocked from bringing relief to Gaza in recent months, despite food experts’ months-long warnings of famine. When the Israeli military seized the ship Madleen in June, the activist was one of 12 activists on board.
The ship was intercepted at a time when Israel is coming under increasing international pressure for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, where worries about famine are growing due to Israeli aid restrictions.
Adalah, a regional human rights organization, said that the vessel’s raid was against international law. It called for the immediate release of the 21 activists from ten other nations, including parliamentarians and human rights advocates.
According to a statement from Adalah, the flotilla was traveling toward the State of Palestine’s territorial waters, which are recognized by international law, and it never crossed Israeli territorial waters. Israel has no control or legal jurisdiction over the international waters where the ship was traveling.
Adalah called for the activists’ whereabouts and legal status to be made public right away.
A left-wing environmentalist lawmaker named Nicola Fratoianni urged the Italian government to protect the two Italians aboard.
According to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, seven U.S. citizens were also on board, including a Jewish American war veteran, a human rights lawyer, and a Jewish-American activist.
