SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
freedom flotilla coalition
Gaza Freedom Flotilla Sailboat Madleen Intercepted by Israeli Commandos
“Every hour without consequences emboldens Israel to escalate its attacks on civilians, aid workers, and the very foundations of international law.”
Jun 09, 2025
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s (FFC) sailboat, named the Madleen, was intercepted in international waters by the Israeli military at 3:02 am CEST earlier today at 31.95236° N, 32.38880° E.
The ship was unlawfully boarded, its 12 unarmed civilian crew and participants abducted, and its life-saving cargo—including baby formula, food, and medical supplies—confiscated, as well as personal possessions taken.
To our knowledge, no one from the Madleen was injured during the interception.
Immediately after the interception, the crew and participants were moved from the Madleen and taken to an Israeli ship. That is only the second time that crew/participants have been taken off the flotilla ship. The first was in 2011 from the Dignite, which sailed from France.
Prior to the interception, drones flew around Madleen and a white powder substance was dropped on the decks. We do not know what the substance was.
After losing communication with Madleen, the FFC began posting pre-recorded video messages from those onboard. “If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupation forces, or forces that support Israel.” SOS messages from the volunteers have been sent to the world.
In the statement issued by the Gaza Freedom Flotilla coalition, Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney and Freedom Flotilla organizer, said, “Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard the Madleen. This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the ICJ’s binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza. These 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.”
The statement continued, “Israel is once again acting with total impunity. It has defied the International Court of Justice’s binding orders to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza, disregarded the international laws protecting civilian navigation, and dismissed the demands of millions worldwide calling for an end to the siege and genocide.”
This latest act of Israeli aggression follows the unpunished Israeli drone attack on May 1, 2025 on the flotilla’s vessel, Conscience, which left four civilian volunteers injured and the ship disabled and burning in European waters. That unprovoked attack on the Conscience is a major violation of international law that has not been addressed by the international community.
Now, today, Israel has escalated its violence again by targeting another peaceful civilian vessel.
“The world’s governments remained silent when Conscience was bombed. Now Israel is testing that silence again,” said Tan Safi another Freedom Flotilla organizer. “Every hour without consequences emboldens Israel to escalate its attacks on civilians, aid workers, and the very foundations of international law.”
Flotilla lawyers will meet volunteers while they are in prison and advocate for their release.
Calls to the seven embassies in the respective countries of the volunteers will put pressure for immediate consular visits to the prisons to speak with their citizens. Please call the French, Spanish, German, Swedish, Turkish, Brazilian, and Dutch embassies in your country.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition demands:
- An end to the illegal and deadly siege of Gaza.
- The immediate release of all abducted volunteers;
- The immediate delivery of humanitarian aid directly to Palestinians that is independent of the control of the occupying power
- Full accountability for the military assaults on Madleen and Conscience.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'They Deserve Safety': Tlaib Leads Letter Urging Rubio to Protect Gaza Freedom Flotilla
"We write to urge you to do everything in your power to ensure the safety of the ship and its unarmed, civilian passengers and the success of their peaceful, humanitarian mission to deliver lifesaving aid," the letter says.
Jun 07, 2025
As the Madleen drew closer to Gaza on its mission to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib led a letter on Friday calling on the Trump administration to protect the Gaza Freedom Flotilla vessel and its 12 crew members.
"We write to urge you to do everything in your power to ensure the safety of the ship and its unarmed, civilian passengers and the success of their peaceful, humanitarian mission to deliver lifesaving aid," Tlaib (D-Mich.) and 10 other progressive lawmakers wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The lawmakers explained that their concern for the Madleen crew-members' safety stemmed "from the Israeli government's history of using lethal military force to prevent similar aid ships from arriving in Gaza."
In 2010, for example, Israeli commandos killed nine activists onboard the Mavi Marmara during a raid, including one U.S. citizen. A 10th crew member, who was injured, later died as well. And as recently as May, another flotilla vessel, the Conscience, was attacked by drones off of Malta.
Crew members aboard the Madleenissued a distress signal on June 4 as drones circled overhead. Responding to the current voyage, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin told reporters that the "IDF is prepared to operate on all fronts, including in the maritime arena," and said, "We will act accordingly," as The Jerusalem Post reported.
"We must be clear: Any attack on the Madleen or its civilian crew is a clear and blatant violation of international law," the U.S. lawmakers wrote.
"While the Trump administration and the international community fail to use their immense leverage to end this blockade, the activists on board the Madleen are an example of humanitarianism and solidarity."
The ship is carrying necessities including rice, flour, medical supplies, and baby formula to Gaza, which has endured more than 600 days of Israeli bombardment and whose 2 million people face starvation following a two-month total aid blockade imposed by Israel that was only lifted in May after international pressure. However, the amount of aid allowed to enter is still severely curtailed.
Several human rights experts and organizations agree that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza with its deadly assault, which has killed at least 61,709 people since October 2023.
Crew members on the Madleen include French- Palestinian Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan and Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, whose presence has sparked threats from right-wing figures, including U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who wrote on social media, "Hope Greta and her friends can swim!"
Tlaib and the other lawmakers criticized those threats, writing, "This is a serious matter, and we are deeply disturbed by U.S. elected officials making threatening 'jokes' about violence against the civilians onboard."
They urged Rubio "to monitor the Madleen's journey and deter any such hostile actions."
The legislators concluded the letter by drawing attention to the reason the Madleen set sail in the first place:
Above all else, we urge you to address the issue at the root of this voyage: the brutal Israeli blockade and mass starvation of the Palestinian population of Gaza. We demand an immediate end to the blockade, an immediate resumption of unfettered humanitarian aid entry into Gaza, and an immediate and lasting cease-fire. While the Trump administration and the international community fail to use their immense leverage to end this blockade, the activists on board the Madleen are an example of humanitarianism and solidarity. They deserve safety, as does the besieged population of Gaza.
In addition to Tlaib, the letter was signed by Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Jesús G. "Chuy" García (D-Ill.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Greg Casar (D-Texas), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Al Green (D-Texas), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
Other political leaders have argued that international attention is the best way to protect the Madleen and its crew.
"The activists of the Madleen are risking their own lives to highlight the horrific cruelty of the Israeli government against the Palestinians in Gaza," wrote Irish senator Lynn Ruane. "If those seeking aid are targets, then so too are those seeking to bring that aid, so all eyes must be firmly on the Freedom Flotilla; their lives depend on it."
On Saturday, more than 200 members of parliament from Europe signed a letter to Israel urging it to guarantee the safety of all Madleen crew members, allow the ship to enter Gaza freely and safely, allow it to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, and lift its blockade on Gaza entirely.
"The world is watching," the European politicians wrote. "This is an opportunity to demonstrate respect for humanitarian law and human rights."
As of Saturday, the Madleen had reached the coast of Egypt.
"We are now sailing off the Egyptian coast," crew member and German human rights activist Yasemin Acar toldAgence France-Presse. "We are all good."
Hassan, meanwhile, called on global governments to "guarantee safe passage for the Freedom Flotilla."
Keep ReadingShow Less
The Courage and Necessity of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
“We are doing this because no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying," says humanitarian Greta Thunberg, "because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity."
Jun 04, 2025
Many people, armed only with moral and political convictions, would be too intimidated to confront an army or navy directly. But not all.
Twelve nonviolent human-rights activists with the international Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) are currently sailing a small boat, the Madleen, to Gaza. They hope to create a humanitarian sea corridor through Israel’s illegal blockade. If all goes well, they should arrive this weekend, with “baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics.”
They know the danger. Ten volunteers were killed by Israeli commandos when they boarded the Mavi Marmara in 2010. But, as Greta Thunberg said before she embarked last Sunday, “We are doing this because no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying, because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity.”
How Palestinians See It
The history is important, and one does not have to approve of Hamas’ attack against Israeli civilians in October 2023 to understand that.
During the Nakba in 1948, at least 750,000 Palestinians were violently displaced from their homelands by Zionist paramilitaries and nascent Israeli forces. As Palestinian-Canadian Samah Al-Sabbagh recently told a crowd, those who survived that colonial onslaught left their “homes, land, olive groves, even the freshly baked bread.”
The occupation has never stopped, and now the violence is more high-tech and all-inclusive in its reach. In Gaza, bombs (largely supplied by the United States) have destroyed homes, apartment buildings, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, churches, and more—leaving thousands buried under rubble. Adding to that nightmare, doctors report the intentional killing of children with high-velocity bullets that can destroy surrounding tissues and organs.
The death toll is staggering. As of May 27, 2025, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that at least 54,056 people, including at least 17,400 children, have been confirmed as killed in Gaza since October 2023.
For those still living, Israel’s stranglehold on international humanitarian aid has created widespread malnutrition and starvation, with babies and children the most vulnerable. “One in five people in Gaza, about 500,000 people, faces starvation, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification platform said on May 12,” according to the UN. Indeed, the UN calls Gaza the “hungriest place on Earth.”
Israel and its fellow perpetrators, including the United States, refuse to take seriously the rulings by the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, much less the many human-rights groups decrying genocide, and less still the students and people in the streets making a ruckus for justice.
Perhaps the perpetrators think that ignoring the voice of the people will make it stop, that heartbroken people will give up their moral and legal agency. They should think again.
A Global Civil Society Initiative of Unarmed Civilians
Huwaida Arraf is a Palestinian-American lawyer and activist. She has worked with the International Solidarity Movement, the Free Gaza Movement, and more recently the FFC. Her rationale for sending small, unarmed boats in nonviolent direct actions against Israeli policy? “Our governments have failed. And so the people are taking action.”
Lawyers Arraf and Luigi Daniele assert that there is a strong legal basis for citizens taking action, as world governments ignore their “clear and urgent humanitarian obligations.”
In August 2008, the Free Gaza Movement successfully delivered aid to Gaza, using two small fishing boats named Liberty and Free Gaza. Participants included 44 activists from 17 countries, and they promised that they’d keep returning “until the siege on Gaza was broken.”
Included in the aid they brought were 200 pairs of hearing aids—far short of the 9,000 requested—because so many children were experiencing hearing loss as a result of Israel’s sonic booms.
Two years later, on May 31, 2010, the Israeli navy swarmed the Mavi Marmara. This ship was part of a larger flotilla, carrying nearly 700 people, which was attempting to deliver 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The Israelis killed 10 activists—one died after being comatose for four years—and wounded fifty more.
Although the UN Human Rights Council declared the attack illegal—and despite Prime Minister Netanyahu’s apology to Turkey, whose citizens were killed—Israel continued its oppressive blockade.
Between 2010 and 2024, the FFC continued to challenge the siege. But “all ships were pirated by the IOF, and participants were assaulted, kidnapped, interrogated, imprisoned, and/or deported.” (“IOF” identifies the IDF as an occupation force.)
By May 2, 2025, the FFC had prepared their next attempt. The ship was named Conscience as an appeal to the world’s conscience. It was sitting in international waters near Malta, waiting for the volunteers to board and set out for Gaza. But the crew heard drones, and Conscience was struck by two explosives.
“The bombing was a deliberate act of aggression and intimidation,” the FFC wrote on their website. “Four crew members were injured, the ship was set ablaze, communications were severed, and the vessel was left adrift and taking on water. The attack occurred in European waters, in violation of international law.”
Madleen: Never Give Up
The activists say of the Madleen, “She may be small, but her mission is powerful: To break the silence. To challenge Israel’s illegal blockade through nonviolent direct action. To stand firmly and unapologetically, with Gaza.”
The Madleen set sail on June 1, one day after the fifteenth anniversary of the murderous assault on the Mavi Marmara. Activists gathered in Catania, Sicily, in preparation for their launch. The boat is named for Gaza’s first gender-role-defying fisherwoman; she personifies FFC’s steadfastness.
The ship’s namesake, Madleen, fell in love with the sea as a young child. When she was only 13 years old, she took over her injured father’s fishing boat and became the main breadwinner for her family. Although Madleen’s focus was on her family’s survival—not politics—she shared the fishermen’s encounters with Israeli patrols. She recounted, “They often directly attacked my boat. They stole my fishing nets more than once. The thing was that each time they attacked me, I would get a little stronger. I never gave up.”
Years later, she hopes her two daughters will become “two strong fisherwomen.”
May Madleen and the activists happily meet in Gaza this month. And may this stubbornly committed “civil society initiative of unarmed civilians” help the world see that legal and moral obligations are not overridden by governments’ corrupt colonial agendas.
To that end, the FFC asks that people raise their voices and contact the media and government officials to express support for breaking the siege against Gaza.
Readers can track the progress of the Madleen in real time and explore ways to support the FFC’s work. They promise: “We sail until Palestine is free.”
This article first appeared in Foreign Policy In Focus and appears here with permission
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular