ISTANBUL

Lawyers of French nationals who were detained by Israel after the attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla announced on Friday that they will file a complaint.

"By next week, we will file a complaint on behalf of the French citizens who were arrested and are currently deprived of their liberty in Israel," Raphael Kempf, who is one of the lawyers, said in a news briefing.

Kempf noted that they plan to file the complaint for "hijacking ships," which is punishable by 20 years’ imprisonment, and "arbitrary detention."

He underscored that French citizens "are currently held in Israel even though Israel had no right to arrest them."

Underlining that Israel constitutes a violation of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention by attacking the flotilla, Kempf also urged France to intervene before the International Court of Justice.

"The only thing France must and can do today is to use the legal avenues available at the international level, namely referring the matter to the International Court of Justice," he added.

Israeli naval forces attacked and seized almost all of the 44 vessels of the humanitarian flotilla on Thursday and detained more than 470 activists from over 50 countries. The flotilla sought to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and break Israel’s blockade of the enclave.

Israel has maintained the blockade on Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for almost 18 years.

Since October 2023, Israeli bombardments have killed over 66,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children. UN agencies and rights groups have repeatedly warned that Gaza is being rendered uninhabitable, with starvation and disease spreading rapidly.