Israel has said it plans to block a ship carrying international activists en route to besieged Gaza in an effort to challenge the siege on the enclave, amid an escalating humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel’s ongoing carnage.
Army Radio reported on Monday that the Israeli navy is preparing for the arrival of the Madleen, a sailboat launched from Sicily as part of the Gaza flotilla campaign. The boat is attempting to “break the naval blockade”, according to the report.
The ship is carrying 12 crew members.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which organised the mission, said in a statement that Madleen is a civilian ship “carrying humanitarian aid and international human rights defenders in direct defiance of Israel’s illegal and genocidal blockade”.
Passengers include volunteers from several countries, such as French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan. The vessel is transporting urgently needed supplies for Gaza’s civilian population, including baby formula, flour, rice, nappies, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches and children’s prosthetics.
“This is a peaceful act of civil resistance,” the FFC said. “All volunteers and crew aboard Madleen are trained in nonviolence.”
The vessel is expected to reach Gaza’s coastline in roughly a week, though it faces a high risk of interception by Israeli forces in international waters.
The voyage follows a similar attempt by the coalition in early May, when the flotilla ship Conscience was attacked by Israeli drones in international waters. The strike reportedly caused a fire and tore a hole in the vessel’s hull.
The Gaza Media Office has accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon to displace Gaza’s 2.4 million residents. It said Israel has blocked humanitarian aid, especially food, by closing all border crossings since 2 March.
Israeli carnage
Israel has been carrying out a genocide in Gaza since October 2023. Palestinians have recorded killings of more than 54,470 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Some 11,000 Palestinians are feared buried under rubble of annihilated homes, according to Palestine's official WAFA news agency.
Experts, however, contend that the actual death toll significantly exceeds what the Gaza authorities have reported, estimating it could be around 200,000.
Over the course of the genocide, Israel reduced most of the enclave to ruins and practically displaced all of its population.
Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave's more than 2 million.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence 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.
