As Israel seizes aid ship, campaign group vows relentless efforts to break Gaza siege

A campaign group to break Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip vowed today to continue efforts to deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid to the enclave, shortly after Tel Aviv intercepted an aid ship bound for the territory while it was in international waters.

“[Though] we feel helpless and our capabilities are limited, we continue to do everything we can, along with the free people of the world, to reject the war and demand the opening of the crossings and the entry of aid,” the International Committee for Breaking the Siege (ICBSG) said in a statement.

“We affirm that targeting ships attempting to break the blockade will not deter us.”

ICBSG was among the organisers of the British-flagged ship Madleen that attempted to break a crippling blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza, where nearly 55,000 people have been killed in a brutal onslaught since October 2023.

The ship, carrying aid, including food and baby formula, was boarded by Israeli occupation forces during the early hours of today, before it could reach the Gaza shore, was towed to Ashdod Port in Israel.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the activists will be deported to their home countries.

After the Israeli interception of the vessel, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese urged Mediterranean ports to send more aid ships, calling attempts to break the Israeli siege “a legal duty for states and moral imperative for all.”

“They shall sail together – united, they will be unstoppable,” she said, calling for the immediate release of the Madleen aid ship.

“The UK government must urgently seek full clarification and secure the immediate release of the vessel and its crew,” Albanese said.

“The Madleen must be allowed to continue its lawful humanitarian mission to Gaza.”

The aid ship, run by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, set sail for Gaza on 1 June from the Port of San Giovanni Li Cuti in Sicily, Italy.

Among the 12-strong crew aboard the aid ship are Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.

Other activists aboard the Madleen aid ship include Yasemin Acar from Germany; Baptiste Andre, Pascal Maurieras, Yanis Mhamdi, and Reva Viard from France; Thiago Avila from Brazil; Suayb Ordu from Turkiye; Sergio Toribio from Spain; Marco van Rennes from the Netherlands; and Omar Faiad, a journalist with Al Jazeera Mubasher, also from France.

As Israel continued to close all Gaza’s border crossings to humanitarian aid since early March, aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among Gaza’s 2.3 million population.

Last year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.