Archiv: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)


08.10.2025 - 14:17 [ Freedom Flotilla Coalition ]

Israeli Military Attacks Flotilla in International Waters

8 October 2025 – The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and Thousand Madleens to Gaza (TMTG) confirm that three boat : Gaza Sunbirds, Alaa Al-Najajr, Anas Al-Sharif, have been attacked and illegally intercepted by the Israeli military at 04:34 at 120 nautical miles (220km) from Gaza.

Sources so far indicate that the unarmed crew aboard, including doctors, journalists, and elected officials, have been abducted, as well as the vital aid worth over $110,000 USD in medicines, respiratory equipment, and nutritional supplies that were destined for Gaza’s starving hospitals. Their whereabouts remain unknown.

“Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard these ships,” David Heap, Canadian Boat to Gaza and Freedom Flotilla Coalition Steering Committee. “This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the ICJ’s binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza. Our volunteers are not subject to Israeli jurisdiction and cannot be criminalized for delivering aid or challenging an illegal blockade. Their detention is arbitrary, unlawful, and must end immediately.”

08.10.2025 - 14:12 [ Al Jazeera ]

Israel intercepts Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessels en route to Gaza

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) says the Israeli military attacked its convoy of boats and intercepted several vessels as they were sailing towards Gaza.

The FFC said the military had attacked The Conscience – a boat carrying 93 journalists, doctors and activists – before it attacked and intercepted three smaller boats on Wednesday.

Its passengers were “being held in unknown conditions”, it said.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on X that a raid on the flotilla had taken place.

06.10.2025 - 01:25 [ Global Sumud Flotilla ]

ISRAEL‘S CRIMES AGAINST THE GLOBAL SUMUD FLOTILLA HUMANITARIAN ACTIVISTS

The List of Crimes Committed by Israel:

1.Illegal Interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla. Violation of customary norms of international law as accepted under Articles 19, 88 and 301 of UNCLOS, which requires that states respect the peaceful and safe passage of vessels. Israel does not have the right to intercept civilian vessels according to UNCLOS Article 110 with none of the exceptions under Article 110 (a) – (e) having been engaged.

2. Abduction and arbitrary arrest of participants. Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Prohibition of arbitrary arrests. The activists were not combatants or a military threat. The activists are legitimate citizens participating in a humanitarian mission, neither are they irregular migrants attempting to enter Israel territory contrary to Israeli immigrations laws.

3. Forced transfer to prisons in Israel. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: Prohibition of the transfer of civilians from occupied territory. This rule extends to the protection of persons arrested at sea in the context of an armed conflict.

4. Physical violence and inhuman treatment by the use of water cannons against peaceful civilians on high sea contrary to Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions: Prohibition of violence against civilians. Article 5: Prohibition of torture and cruel treatment.

5. Defaming peaceful citizens is a form of illegal stigmatization. Insults, Defamation, and the Slanderous Labeling of „Terrorists“: Right to Dignity (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 1).

6. Unlawful processing of activists as „illegal immigrants“ before the Immigration Authority, court hearings without the presence of lawyers, and coercion into signing a document stating that the participants entered Israel illegally: Violation of the right to a fair trial, liberty, and Security under Article 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

7. Repeated drone attacks by Israel against the Flotilla. Act of aggression against the flag and citizen states, including the illegal use of force, and as a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome statute and violation of 2(4) of the UN Charter as well as infringement of the human rights of the people onboard.

8. Attack of the Vessels and seizure thereof. On the High Seas, the law applying on each ship is the domestic law of its flag state. An attack by an Israeli military warship on a vessel on the High Seas is an attack and infringement of the sovereignty of the flag state. These acts of illegal possession of vessels or abduction of crew on the High Seas can be pursued by each flag state and constitutes a crime within their domestic jurisdiction.

9. Forcibly intercepting and seizing a civilian vessel carrying humanitarian aid for the population of Gaza. Clear reflection of Israel’s unlawful starvation policy, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law and listed as a war crime under Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute. The Israeli blockade over Gaza is unlawful in light of Paragraph 102 of the San Remo Manual, which stipulates the illegality of a blockade if it ‘has the sole purpose of starving the civilian population or denying it other objects essential for its survival’. Israel’s unlawful blockade has been condemned numerous times by the UN bodies and experts, most recently by the UN Commission of Inquiry in August 2025 which concluded that Isreal has committed genocide in Gaza, including by depriving the Palestinian group of objects indispensable for their survival.