Italy, France, and Canada were among the nations that summoned Israeli ambassadors over the “unacceptable” treatment of the Global Sumud Flotilla participants, 87 of whom have reportedly gone on a hunger strike.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir taunts a humiliated Global Sumud Flotilla detainee in Ashdod, Israel on May 20, 2026.
(Photo by Itamar Ben-Gvir/X/screen grab)
Brett Wilkins
May 20, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
A growing number of countries—and even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—on Wednesday condemned far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s humiliation of people violently abducted in international waters from the latest Global Sumud Flotilla as it attempted to break the illegal blockade of Gaza.
Ben-Gvir posted a video on social media showing him joyfully waving an Israeli flag as he walked among detained activists, journalists, and others who were mostly kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs and their foreheads forced to the ground.
“They came with a lot of pride, as great heroes; look at what they look like now,” Ben-Gvir says with glee. “No heroes, nothing. Terrorism supporters. I tell Netanyahu, give them to me for a long, long time.”
The video shows one female detainee shouting, “Free, free Palestine!” as Ben-Gvir walks by. She is grabbed roughly by the head and forced into a squatting position.
Senior officials in countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Indonesia, Italy, Jordan, Libya, the Maldives, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey decried the treatment of their citizens and others seized from the flotilla off the coast of Cyprus.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni—whose strong support for Israel has tempered amid the Gaza genocide and slaughter in Lebanon—called the video “unacceptable.”
“It is inadmissible that these demonstrators, including many Italian citizens, are subjected to this treatment that violates human dignity,” she said. “The Italian government is immediately taking, at the highest institutional levels, all necessary steps to secure the immediate release of the Italian citizens involved.”
“Italy further demands an apology for the treatment reserved for these demonstrators and for the total contempt shown toward the explicit requests of the Italian government,” the right-wing leader added. “For these reasons, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation will immediately summon the Israeli ambassador to request formal clarifications on what has occurred.”
Portugal’s Foreign Ministry called Ben-Gvir’s behavior “intolerable” and “a humiliating violation of human dignity.”
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung accused Israeli forces of illegally abducting his country’s citizens from the flotilla, a move he called “way out of line.”
Speaking Wednesday at a meeting of his Cabinet in Seoul, Lee noted the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants issued in 2024 for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza. The ICC is also believed to be seeking the arrest of Ben-Gvir and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in connection with the ethnic cleansing and settler colonization of the illegally occupied West Bank.
“Almost all European countries have issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and announced plans to arrest him if he enters their territories. We should also consider this,” Lee said. “There are minimum international norms, and Israel is violating them all. They must adhere to principles; we have tolerated this for too long.”
“What is the legal basis for Israel seizing or sinking ships, including those carrying our citizens, who are volunteering for Gaza? Isn’t Israel’s invasion and occupation of Gaza illegal under international law?” Lee asked.
When National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac countered that “the conflict began with Hamas attacking Israel” on October 7, 2023, Lee retorted by asking whether Gaza is Israeli territory. When Wi conceded that it is not, Lee added: “Shouldn’t we protest? Even during combat, can third-country ships be seized? This is a matter of basic common sense, not just law, right?”
“There are minimum international norms, and Israel is violating them all.”
Israel maintains that the San Remo Manual allows for the interception and seizure of flotilla vessels attempting to reach Gaza on the high seas. However, numerous international and maritime law experts note that San Remo isn’t a legally binding treaty. Critically, the document also prohibits blockades that cause “excessive” civilian harm and that result in the inadequate provision of “food and other objects essential” for survival. Israel’s “complete siege” of Gaza has fueled famine and disease and is the basis for the ICC arrest warrant for Gallant.
Meanwhile, United Nations treaties and resolutions, the Fourth Geneva Convention, the ICC Rome Statute, and the Genocide Convention—on which the genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa and backed by nearly 20 countries is based—prohibit or limit Israel’s blockage of humanitarian aid.
Netanyahu and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar—who is also a member of the prime minister’s Likud party—surprised many international observers by condemning Ben-Gvir’s behavior.
“Israel has every right to prevent provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters from entering our territorial waters and reaching Gaza,” Netanyahu said. “However, the way that Minister Ben-Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel’s values and norms.”
Israeli forces have been accused of physically and psychologically torturing past flotilla abductees, without protest from Netanyahu. In 2010, Israeli troops killed nine activists aboard one of the first-ever Gaza flotillas, including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan.
In a statement that followed Netanyahu’s remarks, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said, “The actions of Mr. Ben-Gvir toward the passengers of the Global Sumud Flotilla, denounced by his own colleagues in the Israeli government, are unacceptable.”
“I have requested that the Israeli ambassador to France be summoned to express our indignation and obtain explanations,” he added. “The safety of our compatriots is a constant priority. Whatever one thinks of this flotilla—and we have indicated on several occasions our disapproval of this initiative—our compatriots who are participating in it must be treated with respect and released as quickly as possible.”
Some critics also noted that Ben-Gvir was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism and supporting the Jewish terror group Kach after he advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Others warned against pointing the finger at individual Israeli leaders.
“There is an attempt to portray Ben-Gvir and his treatment of the activists as the entire issue, as if it were an individual act,” Palestinian journalist Reda Yasen said on X in a post with video showing Israeli forces opening fire on one of the flotilla vessels.
“It must be emphasized that this matter is connected to full-scale state terrorism practiced by an occupying power and its army,” he added. “It begins with genocide, the blockade, maritime piracy, the hijacking of ships, firing at participants, the use of skunk water cannons, deliberate ramming, beatings, and other violations.”
Some observers highlighted incendiary remarks about flotilla members made by other Israeli officials, including Likud Transport Minister Miri Regev, who posted a video of her reveling in the detainees’ treatment.
Knesset Member Keti Shitrit, also Likud, said during an interview on far-right Channel 14 that the activists “must be dealt with” like terrorists—who are typically killed by Israeli forces, often along with their families.
Responding to Ben-Gvir’s video, the Israel-based Palestinian legal aid group Adalah said that “Israel is employing a criminal policy of abuse and humiliation against activists seeking to confront Israel’s ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people.”
“The international community must take urgent measures to protect the flotilla members against this brutal and illegal conduct by Israeli officials,” the group added.
Palestinians marched in Gaza on Wednesday in support of the detained activists, at least 87 of whom have reportedly begun a hunger strike “in protest of their illegal abduction and in solidarity with the over 9,500 Palestinian hostages held in Israeli dungeons,” according to flotilla organizers.
‘Aiding and Abetting Genocide’: US Sanctions Peaceful Gaza Flotilla Organizers
“Every time Palestinians and their supporters organize internationally, Washington reaches for the terrorism label to shut them down,” said one critic.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies before a Senate committee on February 5, 2026 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
May 19, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Palestine defenders decried Tuesday’s announcement by the Trump administration of US sanctions targeting four nonviolent campaigners involved in the recent humanitarian flotillas that tried to break Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza.
The US Department of the Treasury said in a statement that its Office of Foreign Assets Control “is taking action against four individuals associated with the pro-Hamas flotilla organized by the US-designated Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) that is attempting to access Gaza in support of Hamas.”
The sanctioned individuals are Saif Abu Keshek, a Palestinian with Spanish and Swedish citizenship and PCPA leader who helped organize and lead Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) missions; Jordan-based PCPA president Hisham Abdallah Sulayman Abu Mahfuz; Mohammed Khatib, who is based in Belgium and is the European coordinator for Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network; and Jaldia Abubakra Aueda, Samidoun’s coordinator in Madrid.
“The pro-terror flotilla attempting to reach Gaza is a ludicrous attempt to undermine President [Donald] Trump’s successful progress toward lasting peace in the region,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement Tuesday. “Treasury will continue to sever Hamas’ global financial support networks, no matter where in the world they are.”
There is no substantiated evidence that the Gaza flotillas are linked to Hamas. Meanwhile, United Nations experts, numerous national governments, human rights groups, and experts say Israel is perpetrating genocide, apartheid, colonization, occupation, and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.
Samidoun called the sanctions—which freeze any of the targets’ US assets and ban Americans from doing business with them—“the latest manifestation of the ongoing US genocidal war on the Palestinian people” and pointed to Israel’s ongoing violent interception and seizure of GSF vessels on the high seas off the coast of Gaza.
“Today’s sanctions by the US come hand-in-hand with today’s Israeli piracy of the Global Sumud Flotilla and the Freedom Flotilla, and the abduction of hundreds of international activists at sea,” the group said in a statement. “All of these sanctions targeting Palestinian organizations, not only those targeting us, are aiding and abetting genocide.”
Since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, the Biden and Trump administrations have supported Israel with tens of billions of dollars worth of armed aid and diplomatic cover, including vetoes of numerous United Nations Security Council Gaza ceasefire resolutions. Total US financial support for Israel since it was founded in 1948—largely via the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs—is approaching $300 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Since returning to office, Trump has cracked down on pro-Palestinian activists, students, organizations, and foreign nationals. Critics—including advocacy groups, academics, and some judges—have condemned what they have called attacks on free speech, association, and academic freedom.
The Trump administration has sanctioned International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan and other numerous other ICC jurists after the Hague-based tribunal issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The ICC also issued arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders who were killed by Israeli attacks.
On Tuesday, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the ICC is also seeking his arrest, and that he would “fight back” by ordering the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of Palestinians from their homes in the illegally occupied West Bank.
The US administration has also sanctioned independent UN Palestine expert Francesca Albanese and her family—a move that was temporarily blocked earlier this month by a federal judge who asserted that the Italian humanitarian “has done nothing more than speak.”
“Every time Palestinians and their supporters organize internationally, Washington reaches for the terrorism label to shut them down,” Isabelle Hayslip, advocacy manager at Democracy for the Arab World Now, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. “The net keeps widening. Palestinian diaspora communities now live under constant threat of designation for demanding their rights.”
“Every time Palestinians and their supporters organize internationally, Washington reaches for the terrorism label to shut them down,” said one critic.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies before a Senate committee on February 5, 2026 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
May 19, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Palestine defenders decried Tuesday’s announcement by the Trump administration of US sanctions targeting four nonviolent campaigners involved in the recent humanitarian flotillas that tried to break Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza.
The US Department of the Treasury said in a statement that its Office of Foreign Assets Control “is taking action against four individuals associated with the pro-Hamas flotilla organized by the US-designated Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) that is attempting to access Gaza in support of Hamas.”
The sanctioned individuals are Saif Abu Keshek, a Palestinian with Spanish and Swedish citizenship and PCPA leader who helped organize and lead Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) missions; Jordan-based PCPA president Hisham Abdallah Sulayman Abu Mahfuz; Mohammed Khatib, who is based in Belgium and is the European coordinator for Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network; and Jaldia Abubakra Aueda, Samidoun’s coordinator in Madrid.
“The pro-terror flotilla attempting to reach Gaza is a ludicrous attempt to undermine President [Donald] Trump’s successful progress toward lasting peace in the region,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement Tuesday. “Treasury will continue to sever Hamas’ global financial support networks, no matter where in the world they are.”
There is no substantiated evidence that the Gaza flotillas are linked to Hamas. Meanwhile, United Nations experts, numerous national governments, human rights groups, and experts say Israel is perpetrating genocide, apartheid, colonization, occupation, and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.
Samidoun called the sanctions—which freeze any of the targets’ US assets and ban Americans from doing business with them—“the latest manifestation of the ongoing US genocidal war on the Palestinian people” and pointed to Israel’s ongoing violent interception and seizure of GSF vessels on the high seas off the coast of Gaza.
“Today’s sanctions by the US come hand-in-hand with today’s Israeli piracy of the Global Sumud Flotilla and the Freedom Flotilla, and the abduction of hundreds of international activists at sea,” the group said in a statement. “All of these sanctions targeting Palestinian organizations, not only those targeting us, are aiding and abetting genocide.”
Since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, the Biden and Trump administrations have supported Israel with tens of billions of dollars worth of armed aid and diplomatic cover, including vetoes of numerous United Nations Security Council Gaza ceasefire resolutions. Total US financial support for Israel since it was founded in 1948—largely via the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs—is approaching $300 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Since returning to office, Trump has cracked down on pro-Palestinian activists, students, organizations, and foreign nationals. Critics—including advocacy groups, academics, and some judges—have condemned what they have called attacks on free speech, association, and academic freedom.
The Trump administration has sanctioned International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan and other numerous other ICC jurists after the Hague-based tribunal issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The ICC also issued arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders who were killed by Israeli attacks.
On Tuesday, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the ICC is also seeking his arrest, and that he would “fight back” by ordering the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of Palestinians from their homes in the illegally occupied West Bank.
The US administration has also sanctioned independent UN Palestine expert Francesca Albanese and her family—a move that was temporarily blocked earlier this month by a federal judge who asserted that the Italian humanitarian “has done nothing more than speak.”
“Every time Palestinians and their supporters organize internationally, Washington reaches for the terrorism label to shut them down,” Isabelle Hayslip, advocacy manager at Democracy for the Arab World Now, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. “The net keeps widening. Palestinian diaspora communities now live under constant threat of designation for demanding their rights.”
‘May Day! May Day! May Day!’: Israeli Forces Intercept, Open Fire on Gaza Flotilla Activists
“With hands in the air, participants implored, ‘Do not shoot.’ This is an attack on Gaza. This is an attack on humanity.”
Supporters flash victory signs and wave Palestinian flags as vessels in the latest Global Sumud Flotilla convoy depart from Marmaris, Turkey, on May 14, 2026.
(Photo by Murat Kocabas/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
May 19, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Israeli forces on Tuesday attacked and seized more vessels that were taking part in the latest Global Sumud Flotilla trying to break the illegal blockade of Gaza amid the ongoing genocide against the people of the besieged Palestinian territory.
Video posted by Global Sumud Flotilla shows Israeli forces in inflatable boats firing shots toward at least two GSF vessels, even as they are stopped and the activists aboard them have their hands held in the air in surrender. It is not clear what type of ammunition the Israelis fired in the attack, which occurred in international waters around 90-100 miles off the Gaza coast.
“This is an attack on humanity,” reads the video’s caption, which decried “Israeli violence against volunteers who sailed with compassion and love in their hearts.”
“With hands in the air, participants implored, ‘Do not shoot,’” GSF said. “This is an attack on Gaza. This is an attack on humanity.”
“The Israeli occupation has again illegally and violently intercepted our international fleet of humanitarian vessels and abducted our volunteers as they undertake a legitimate mission to break the illegal siege on Gaza and open a humanitarian corridor,” GSF said after the latest seizures, which began Monday, as Common Dreams reported.
“This is what apartheid looks like: When those trying to save lives are met with bullets,” the group continued. “When aid is blocked with brutality. When international law is made a mockery. Israel openly bragged that they would target based on race. We cannot stand by while this is normalized.”
In another video posted by GSF, one member is seen talking into a ship’s radio—at least one of which was apparently jammed by Israeli forces, who broadcast Britney Spears’ 2000 hit “Oops!... I Did It Again” through their speakers.
“May Day! May Day! May Day! This is sailing vessel Zefiro... We are surrounded by military vessels, we are aware that other ships in our fleet have been boarded, and we expect further escalation of hostilities,” the man says. “We are in international waters; we are suffering an act of piracy!”
GSF said that hundreds of activists from over 40 countries were “being forcibly transferred” to Israel, where past flotilla participants say they were physically and psychologically tortured by their captors.
In 2010, Israeli forces raided one of the first Gaza-bound flotillas, killing nine volunteers aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan.
“States have an obligation to protect their citizens,” GSF said Tuesday. “Flag states under whose jurisdiction our boats are registered have an obligation to protect those vessels and prosecute acts of piracy in their courts.”
“We are outraged by the normalization of these violations of international maritime law and the kidnapping of peaceful civilians in international waters,” GSF added. “We demand the immediate release of our participants, the safe passage of our entire fleet, and an end to the illegal siege of Gaza.”
On Monday, Israeli forces reportedly seized 41 GSF vessels that set sail from Marmaris, Turkey last week. Among the activists reportedly abducted on Monday is Dr. Margaret Connolly, the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly. Ireland is one of nearly 20 nations that have formally joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel that is currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
“It seems like this happened in international waters, and it’s a cause of worry, really, and I’m very proud of my sister, but I’m worried about her,” the president said Monday.
In stark contrast, the Trump administration on Tuesday announced US Treasury Department sanctions against four flotilla organizers.
More than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in Gaza, including thousands who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Almost all of Gaza’s approximately 2.1 million people have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened by Israel’s war and siege since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.
Palestinians are still starving in Gaza, as Israel’s ongoing blockade—which began two decades ago—has resulted in a sharp decline in the number of humanitarian aid trucks entering the strip in recent months. The United Nations World Food Program recently said that at least 1.6 million people—or 77% of Gaza’s population—are still “facing high levels of acute food insecurity,” including more than 100,000 children and 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women.
GSF on Tuesday urged Palestine defenders around the world to contact their governments and demand the immediate release of flotilla members, condemnation of Israeli crimes and state terrorism, an end to Israeli impunity, and support for Palestinian liberation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court—also in The Hague—for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, praised the Naval commander in charge of intercepting the flotilla.
“You are doing an outstanding job, both in the first flotilla and in this part as well, and are effectively thwarting a malicious plan intended to break the isolation we are imposing on Hamas terrorists in Gaza,” he said Monday. “You are doing this with great success, and I must say also, quietly, and certainly with less publicity than our enemies expected.”
Israeli officials have repeatedly invoked the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea—often shortened to the San Remo Manual—to justify the interception and seizure of flotilla vessels attempting to reach Gaza on the high seas.
However, Don Rothwell, professor of international law at the Australian National University, refuted the legitimacy of that claim, which applies to international war between sovereign states, given Palestine’s lack of independence.
“There is no international armed conflict between Israel and the independent state of Palestine,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday. “As such, any attempt to enforce the blockade... has no legal basis under international law.”
“With hands in the air, participants implored, ‘Do not shoot.’ This is an attack on Gaza. This is an attack on humanity.”
Supporters flash victory signs and wave Palestinian flags as vessels in the latest Global Sumud Flotilla convoy depart from Marmaris, Turkey, on May 14, 2026.
(Photo by Murat Kocabas/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
May 19, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Israeli forces on Tuesday attacked and seized more vessels that were taking part in the latest Global Sumud Flotilla trying to break the illegal blockade of Gaza amid the ongoing genocide against the people of the besieged Palestinian territory.
Video posted by Global Sumud Flotilla shows Israeli forces in inflatable boats firing shots toward at least two GSF vessels, even as they are stopped and the activists aboard them have their hands held in the air in surrender. It is not clear what type of ammunition the Israelis fired in the attack, which occurred in international waters around 90-100 miles off the Gaza coast.
“This is an attack on humanity,” reads the video’s caption, which decried “Israeli violence against volunteers who sailed with compassion and love in their hearts.”
“With hands in the air, participants implored, ‘Do not shoot,’” GSF said. “This is an attack on Gaza. This is an attack on humanity.”
“The Israeli occupation has again illegally and violently intercepted our international fleet of humanitarian vessels and abducted our volunteers as they undertake a legitimate mission to break the illegal siege on Gaza and open a humanitarian corridor,” GSF said after the latest seizures, which began Monday, as Common Dreams reported.
“This is what apartheid looks like: When those trying to save lives are met with bullets,” the group continued. “When aid is blocked with brutality. When international law is made a mockery. Israel openly bragged that they would target based on race. We cannot stand by while this is normalized.”
In another video posted by GSF, one member is seen talking into a ship’s radio—at least one of which was apparently jammed by Israeli forces, who broadcast Britney Spears’ 2000 hit “Oops!... I Did It Again” through their speakers.
“May Day! May Day! May Day! This is sailing vessel Zefiro... We are surrounded by military vessels, we are aware that other ships in our fleet have been boarded, and we expect further escalation of hostilities,” the man says. “We are in international waters; we are suffering an act of piracy!”
GSF said that hundreds of activists from over 40 countries were “being forcibly transferred” to Israel, where past flotilla participants say they were physically and psychologically tortured by their captors.
In 2010, Israeli forces raided one of the first Gaza-bound flotillas, killing nine volunteers aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan.
“States have an obligation to protect their citizens,” GSF said Tuesday. “Flag states under whose jurisdiction our boats are registered have an obligation to protect those vessels and prosecute acts of piracy in their courts.”
“We are outraged by the normalization of these violations of international maritime law and the kidnapping of peaceful civilians in international waters,” GSF added. “We demand the immediate release of our participants, the safe passage of our entire fleet, and an end to the illegal siege of Gaza.”
On Monday, Israeli forces reportedly seized 41 GSF vessels that set sail from Marmaris, Turkey last week. Among the activists reportedly abducted on Monday is Dr. Margaret Connolly, the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly. Ireland is one of nearly 20 nations that have formally joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel that is currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
“It seems like this happened in international waters, and it’s a cause of worry, really, and I’m very proud of my sister, but I’m worried about her,” the president said Monday.
In stark contrast, the Trump administration on Tuesday announced US Treasury Department sanctions against four flotilla organizers.
More than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in Gaza, including thousands who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Almost all of Gaza’s approximately 2.1 million people have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened by Israel’s war and siege since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.
Palestinians are still starving in Gaza, as Israel’s ongoing blockade—which began two decades ago—has resulted in a sharp decline in the number of humanitarian aid trucks entering the strip in recent months. The United Nations World Food Program recently said that at least 1.6 million people—or 77% of Gaza’s population—are still “facing high levels of acute food insecurity,” including more than 100,000 children and 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women.
GSF on Tuesday urged Palestine defenders around the world to contact their governments and demand the immediate release of flotilla members, condemnation of Israeli crimes and state terrorism, an end to Israeli impunity, and support for Palestinian liberation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court—also in The Hague—for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, praised the Naval commander in charge of intercepting the flotilla.
“You are doing an outstanding job, both in the first flotilla and in this part as well, and are effectively thwarting a malicious plan intended to break the isolation we are imposing on Hamas terrorists in Gaza,” he said Monday. “You are doing this with great success, and I must say also, quietly, and certainly with less publicity than our enemies expected.”
Israeli officials have repeatedly invoked the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea—often shortened to the San Remo Manual—to justify the interception and seizure of flotilla vessels attempting to reach Gaza on the high seas.
However, Don Rothwell, professor of international law at the Australian National University, refuted the legitimacy of that claim, which applies to international war between sovereign states, given Palestine’s lack of independence.
“There is no international armed conflict between Israel and the independent state of Palestine,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday. “As such, any attempt to enforce the blockade... has no legal basis under international law.”
‘Yet Another Act of Piracy’: Israel Raids Humanitarian Flotilla Bound for Gaza
“Shame on European governments who are not acting to stop Israel!” said UN expert Francesca Albanese. “When will Israel’s impunity end?”
Israeli forces as they approach vessels traveling as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, organized by humanitarians to bring life-saving aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
(Photo: Screengrab/Global Sumud Flotilla)
Jon Queally
May 18, 2026
C0MMON DREAMS
Israel’s raid on a peaceful flotilla of international vessels attempting to bring humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip was described Monday as an act of brazen piracy and condemned by human rights activists and experts who say the world should no longer stand by in the face of such criminality.
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, called the operations by Israel “yet another act of piracy by the Israeli army in international waters” that must be condemned by the global community.
Noting that the flotilla is “carrying basic necessities to a desperate population in Gaza,” Albanese said: “Shame on European governments who are not acting to stop Israel! When will Israel’s impunity end?”
A dispatch was issued by the Global Sumud Flotilla—which has repeatedly tried to break the siege of Gaza—shortly after 10:30 am local time, which said that their vessels off the coast of Cyprus were “currently surrounded and under active interception by Israeli naval warships in international waters, approximately 250 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza.”
The Israeli forces reportedly boarded a number of the more than 50 vessels traveling in the flotilla and began detaining those aboard.
“By intercepting the flotilla at a perimeter of 250 nautical miles today and in Cyprus’ SAR zone,” said the Flotilla in its statement, “the Israeli regime continues to demonstrate a systematic disregard for international maritime law, freedom of navigation on the high seas, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”
Thiago Avila, a Brazilian activist who was detained and imprisoned by the Israelis for several days after being kidnapped off a boat on a previous attempt by humanitarians to reach Gaza with relief supplies, said in a video statement on Monday that now was the time for the international community to act.
“Do something,” pleaded Avila. “Take to the streets. The world cannot stand a genocide. The world cannot stand a country that violates international law, to continue killing children, assassinating children out of hunger, killing people with drones.”
“They want you not to talk about what’s happening in Gaza,” he continued. “There’s no real ceasefire. Seven months of people getting killed, aid still being hindered, more than half the land being taken away, and their plans are the worst for that area—it is complete ethnic cleansing and genocide. We need to stop that.”
Ann Wright, a retired US Army colonel who has long been a leading anti-war activist and is currently serving as a member of the support team at the Flotilla’s Crisis Center stationed in Istanbul, Turkiye, called the operation to deliver aid the “largest civilian flotilla in the history of support for Palestinians in Gaza” to date.
“Stop the genocide, not the flotilla,” said Stephen Bowen, executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland.
Independent journalist Alex Colston, embedded with the flotilla activists and on one of the vessels approached by Israeli forces, reported that he could confirm “people on intercepted boats are being moved to one, maybe two, military prison frigates,” though it was not clear where exactly those detained would be taken.
“Shame on European governments who are not acting to stop Israel!” said UN expert Francesca Albanese. “When will Israel’s impunity end?”
Israeli forces as they approach vessels traveling as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, organized by humanitarians to bring life-saving aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
(Photo: Screengrab/Global Sumud Flotilla)
Jon Queally
May 18, 2026
C0MMON DREAMS
Israel’s raid on a peaceful flotilla of international vessels attempting to bring humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip was described Monday as an act of brazen piracy and condemned by human rights activists and experts who say the world should no longer stand by in the face of such criminality.
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, called the operations by Israel “yet another act of piracy by the Israeli army in international waters” that must be condemned by the global community.
Noting that the flotilla is “carrying basic necessities to a desperate population in Gaza,” Albanese said: “Shame on European governments who are not acting to stop Israel! When will Israel’s impunity end?”
A dispatch was issued by the Global Sumud Flotilla—which has repeatedly tried to break the siege of Gaza—shortly after 10:30 am local time, which said that their vessels off the coast of Cyprus were “currently surrounded and under active interception by Israeli naval warships in international waters, approximately 250 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza.”
The Israeli forces reportedly boarded a number of the more than 50 vessels traveling in the flotilla and began detaining those aboard.
“By intercepting the flotilla at a perimeter of 250 nautical miles today and in Cyprus’ SAR zone,” said the Flotilla in its statement, “the Israeli regime continues to demonstrate a systematic disregard for international maritime law, freedom of navigation on the high seas, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”
Thiago Avila, a Brazilian activist who was detained and imprisoned by the Israelis for several days after being kidnapped off a boat on a previous attempt by humanitarians to reach Gaza with relief supplies, said in a video statement on Monday that now was the time for the international community to act.
“Do something,” pleaded Avila. “Take to the streets. The world cannot stand a genocide. The world cannot stand a country that violates international law, to continue killing children, assassinating children out of hunger, killing people with drones.”
“They want you not to talk about what’s happening in Gaza,” he continued. “There’s no real ceasefire. Seven months of people getting killed, aid still being hindered, more than half the land being taken away, and their plans are the worst for that area—it is complete ethnic cleansing and genocide. We need to stop that.”
Ann Wright, a retired US Army colonel who has long been a leading anti-war activist and is currently serving as a member of the support team at the Flotilla’s Crisis Center stationed in Istanbul, Turkiye, called the operation to deliver aid the “largest civilian flotilla in the history of support for Palestinians in Gaza” to date.
“Stop the genocide, not the flotilla,” said Stephen Bowen, executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland.
Independent journalist Alex Colston, embedded with the flotilla activists and on one of the vessels approached by Israeli forces, reported that he could confirm “people on intercepted boats are being moved to one, maybe two, military prison frigates,” though it was not clear where exactly those detained would be taken.
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