ISTANBUL

Human rights group Amnesty International on Monday denounced Israel’s interception of an aid ship attempting to break Tel Aviv’s siege on Gaza as a “violation of international law.”

“Madleen, launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), was seeking to bring humanitarian aid in an attempt to breach Israel’s illegal blockade of the occupied Gaza Strip. It was carrying unarmed civilians on a humanitarian mission,” Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard said on her official X account.

“Israel’s interception of Madleen violates international law,” she said.

The British-flagged boat aimed to break a crippling blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza, where nearly 55,000 people have been killed in a brutal onslaught since October 2023.

Carrying an amount of aid, including food and baby formula, the ship was boarded by Israeli forces during the night before it could reach the Gaza shore and was towed to Ashdod Port in Israel.

Callamard said Israel, as an occupying power, has a legal obligation to ensure civilians in Gaza have sufficient food and medicine.

“They should have let Madleen deliver its humanitarian supplies to Gaza,” she said.

“In line with its obligations as the occupying power, and the legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice to prevent genocide, Israel must immediately lift its illegal blockade of Gaza, facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza, and allow international fact-finding missions into Gaza.”

The London-based rights group called on the US “to do far more than they have done to this date” to end the Israeli war and blockade on Gaza.

“There is an ongoing genocide. Military occupation. Apartheid. Palestinians in Gaza are starved. Humanitarian workers are targeted. Humanitarian aid is blocked,” Callamard said.

Israel detained the 12-strong crew on the Madleen ship, saying all activists will be deported to their home countries, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.

Other activists aboard the Madleen aid ship include Yasemin Acar from Germany; Baptiste Andre, Pascal Maurieras, Yanis Mhamdi, and Reva Viard from France; Thiago Avila from Brazil; Suayb Ordu from Türkiye; Sergio Toribio from Spain; Marco van Rennes from the Netherlands; and Omar Faiad, a journalist with Al Jazeera Mubasher, also from France.

As Israel continued to close all of Gaza’s border crossings to humanitarian aid since early March, aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among Gaza’s 2.4 million population.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.