Gaza Freedom Flotilla volunteers detained by Israel as Israel continues to kill Palestinians attempting to access aid in Gaza
9th June 2025- Israeli forces have intercepted the UK-flagged Madleen ship, which was carrying food and medical aid to Gaza amid Israel’s blockade of aid. The twelve unarmed international volunteers were detained by Israeli forces, and the aid was confiscated.
The ship was intercepted at 3:02 am CET in international waters at 31.95236° N, 32.38880° E. As part of the raid, which took place in international waters, the aid volunteers were ordered to throw their phones into the sea, an unnecessary order that could only be seen in the context of Israel’s ongoing attempt to conceal their conduct, by preventing the volunteers from documenting any potential crimes or mistreatment they might have been subjected to by Israeli forces. This stands alongside established practices of arresting, targeting and killing Palestinian journalists, and denying the entry of international journalists into Gaza.
This decision by Israeli authorities forms part of its wider ongoing strategy to severely obstruct aid to Gaza, following a total blockade that continued for three months until the end of May. This has exacerbated the humanitarian aid crisis, whilst Palestinians in Gaza starve. As recently as yesterday, thirteen Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces whilst they were trying to access aid provided by the US-Israeli backed ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ (GHF).
GHF has been criticised by the United Nations, most importantly because it attempts to replace internationally recognised and UN-led mechanisms to distribute aid, in addition to twisting the narrative into the issue being with aid distribution mechanisms rather that Israel’s deliberate and well-engineered plan to starve Palestinians and deny the entry of aid, and also for putting Palestinians in danger and not providing sufficient food and medicine aid to deal with Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. More than 130 people have been killed by Israel while trying to access food from aid sites since the GHF programme began on 27th May 2025.
As for the Madleen interception, this is not an isolated incident, Israel has historically violently targeted the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the organisation that organised the aid mission and has attempted similar missions to end Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza. In 2010, Israeli forces killed nine aid providers in the FFC flotilla. As recently as May 2025, Israel conducted a drone attack on another FFC ship, the Conscience.
The international volunteers who have been detained include French MEP Rima Hassan, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, Yanis Mhamdi, Yasemin Acar, Thiago Ávila, Baptiste Andre, Mark van Rennes, Omar Faiad, Pascal Maurieras, Suayb Ordu, Reva Viard and Sergio Toribio.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
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