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Israeli forces said Thursday morning that it had intercepted around forty boats in the humanitarian fleet on the road to Gaza.
These arrests – judged illegal by the members of the crew, which claim that they took place in international waters – have sparked a wave of protests around the world, especially in the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, Spain, Belgium, Turkey, Argentina and Colombia.
International indignation
In Italy, thousands of people gathered in the streets of Rome, Naples, Milan and Turin.
In the Italian capital, the magnitude of the movement forced the authorities to close several metro stations. In Naples, demonstrators crossed the rails of the city’s main station chanting “Palestine Libre” and brandishing flags.
Across the Atlantic, in Buenos Aires, demonstrators gathered to ask their government to take measures to obtain the Celeste Fierro release, an elected representative of the city of the Argentine capital for the socialist workers movement, which was on board the Adara ship, intercepted on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
Israeli authorities have announced that activists on board intercepted ships, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, were safe and that they had been transferred to Israel.
The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, told the Italian public channel Rai that activists would be expelled in the coming days and that Israeli forces had received the order of “Do not use violence”.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry has condemned the interception of boats by Israel, denouncing a “Act of terrorism” and a serious violation of international law.
The flotilla has nearly 500 activists, including Greta Thunberg, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, Mandla Mandela, the former mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and several European elected officials.
Event chronology
The flotilla ships were sailing in international waters north of Egypt and entered what the activists called the “danger zone” on Wednesday, that the Israeli authorities warned the flotilla not to cross and where they had already arrested other boats.
According to the crew, the Israeli navy approached the flotilla early on Wednesday and pointed out by radio message that the crew had to change CAP because it approached a “zone de combat active”.
At nightfall, the fleet reported the approach of dozens of military ships. Shortly after, the live broadcast of most ships was interrupted. Some activists have managed to broadcast live when the Israeli forces approached them thanks to their smartphones before throwing them in the water.
According to The monitoring tool Provided by the organizers of the flotilla, one of their boats would have reached the territorial waters of Gaza. However, this information remains to be confirmed.
Is the stream of the flotilla legal?
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates that a state is only competent up to 12 nautical miles (19 kilometers) of its coast. In general, the authorities do not have the right to seize ships in international waters, but armed conflicts are an exception to this rule.
Yuval Shany, expert in international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says that Israel can intercept without prior warning a ship trying to break a blockade if it is “Military justified”.
This last point is still the subject of debates in the case of the blockade in Gaza.
Israel imposed an indefinite blockade in Gaza since Hamas took control of the territory in 2007, in order to prevent the transfer of arms and military equipment to the territory.
But the flotilla argues that it is a civilian group and not armed and that the transition from humanitarian aid is guaranteed by international law.
Omer Shatz, an Israeli expert in international law who teaches Sciences Po Paris and who pleaded a previous flotilla affair before the Israeli Supreme Court, said that even if the disputed seat of Gaza was considered legal, “International law opens a humanitarian road from the high seas in Gaza – both in international and national waters off Gaza“.
“If the basic needs of the population are not met by occupying power, there is a right to provide humanitarian aid, but under certain conditions“Explains the expert.
Israel, for example, would thus have the right to arrest and search the ships carrying the aid to check the cargo, in the same way as it does with the assistance trucks entering Gaza by land.
