SEVERAL vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian convoy sailing towards Gaza, have been intercepted and boarded by Israeli forces during the night as they attempted to push through the naval blockade. RFI spoke to a French surgeon on board one of the 44 ships and the wife of a UK activist whose boat was intercepted.
“The Israeli military is trying to terrorise us by relentlessly attacking us with water cannons, blasting bright flashing lights and shrilling sirens,” Dr Yacine Haffaf, a French surgeon on board the Jeannot III, told RFI this morning.
He is one of the 450 people from over 40 countries sailing on the 44 boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), which set sail for Gaza at the beginning of September to bring food and humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Last night, several GSF vessels were intercepted by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) while they were hours away from the shores of Gaza.
69-year-old Haffaf heads Waves of Freedom, the French contingent of the flotilla.
He told RFI – before the ship was intercepted – that his morale was still high even though he is drenched and “the Israeli boats are dangerously close”.
Live stream footage of the Jeannot III has shown the eight activists on board with their hands held high, fingers spread apart to indicate that they are unarmed and not posing a threat.
The civilians on board have been trained to adopt this attitude to present themselves as non-violent individuals.
A GSF activist reported that the Israeli military said “if you stop the engine, we stop the water”.
Israel or Palestinian waters
Israeli Forces have reportedly ordered the flotilla to stop before they reach the naval blockade ahead of Gaza.
“You are instructed to change your course. Approaching the naval blockade violates international law and poses a direct security threat to Israel and its citizens,” the navy told one of the GSF vessels.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said that this is “absolute nonsense”.
“The flotilla has not entered Israel’s territorial waters; this is Palestine’s waters and Israel has no authority over it,” she said on Wednesday in a press conference.
“Therefore, any intervention by Israel in these waters is unlawful. Furthermore, the International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to dismantle the occupation and withdraw its troops outside Palestine. This does not only mean the land – Gaza, the occupied territory – it also includes the territorial waters.”
He’s my hero
Another vessel, Adara – carrying 22 people from several countries – was intercepted and boarded by the IOF on Wednesday evening.
Sid Khan, a 48-year-old banker from Glasgow, was on board the Adara. His wife Isma, told RFI that she has had no news of her husband since the interception. Her last conversation with him was late Wednesday afternoon.
“He was in good spirits even though he knew that they were going to be captured, jailed even,” she said.
“Sid told me that it is likely the Israeli forces will force them to sign a document to say that they’ve breached Israeli territory. But they haven’t – they are in Palestinian waters.”
He said that going to jail for a few days is actually nothing compared to what the people of Palestine are going through.
“He’s my hero,” Isma said. “I am crying because it is hard, but it is also admirable, his determination to stand up for the Palestinians so that they can live a life of dignity and not live in an open prison.”
Isma and Sid are no strangers to humanitarian activities. Isma Khan, a Scottish Pakistani optometrist, does charity work for remote populations in the Himalayas by providing eye health and preventing avoidable blindness.
“Sid believes that the humanitarian mission has achieved its goal in opening the eyes of the world to Gaza,” said Isma.
Enforcing international laws
Meanwhile, Albanese has underlined that the humanitarian aid the flotilla is carrying is just a drop in the ocean.
“More importantly, what the flotilla is carrying is the courage to enforce international laws,” she said.
In one of the videos released overnight by GSF, Thiago Avila, on board the Alma, was responding to the Israeli navy’s close presence by asking them to keep clear of the flotilla.
“Please keep minimum one nautical mile away from the Global Sumud Flotilla,” he said. “All vessels … our mission is a non-violent humanitarian solidarity mission for the Palestinian people in Gaza. Any attempt to block or hinder this mission is illegal by international law.”
But, for the IOF, breaching the naval blockade is a violation of international law. Israel sees it as “an act of operation with the Hamas terrorist organisation”.
Israel’s foreign ministry said on X that “several vessels of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla have been safely stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port”.
Saif Abukeshek, GSF spokesperson, insisted that they are ready and prepared to take legal action against Israel.
“This is land and sea mobilisation. Any violation of international law and human rights that Israel is going to commit, we will take all legal actions, whether through our participants or also the flags of the ships,” he said on Wednesday.
- This article is republished from RFI. Read the original article here.
