The Freedom Flotilla Coalition announced Monday morning that the Israeli occupation army had raided its ship Madleen, which was en route to Gaza, and that all communication with it had since been lost.
Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian American lawyer and founding member of the coalition, told Al Manassa: “This is not the first time we are trying to break the siege of Gaza, and we have been attacked before, and we have been injured, beaten, arrested, held hostage in Israeli dungeons by this rogue state.”
She recalled Israel’s 2010 assault on the flotilla ship Mavi Marmara, in which ten Turkish nationals were killed and others on board were detained: “In 2010, Israel murdered 10 of our colleagues and injured dozens more, arrested 700 people, and it never faced repercussions for it. And this is why Israel keeps going and keeps escalating, because it thinks it is immune from any kind of accountability.”
In May, Israeli drones attacked another flotilla ship, Conscience, near Malta while it was heading to Gaza.
In the days preceding the raid on Madleen, drones were spotted flying above the ship at night, alarming activist, before it became clear that their purpose was reconnaissance and information gathering, the organizers said.
Early on Monday, the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza/ICBSG issued an SOS and posted videos on X featuring 12 international activists aboard Madleen, urging their governments to ensure their safety.
“If you are seeing this video, we have been intercepted at sea and I have been kidnapped by Israeli occupation forces, or forces of a country complicit in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians,” said Spanish activist Sergio Toribio in one of the videos. “I appeal to all my comrades, friends, and family to pressure the Spanish government to demand my release as soon as possible.”
“With the Madleen, we are not just activists and organizers—we are in touch with lawmakers and with politicians all around the world,” Arraf told Al Manassa. “There is so much global support for Madleen’s mission because the world is horrified at what we’ve been forced to witness while our governments remain silent or remain complicit,”
The ship is operated by the ICBSG, as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition—a global initiative launched in 2010 to challenge the Israeli blockade. The coalition has dispatched 36 ships so far in pursuit of that goal.
“We will do all we can to advocate for the safety and immediate release of our colleagues,” Arraf said. “But as we do that, we also know that first and foremost, attention needs to be on Gaza. Because if Israel can do this to internationals from European countries on the Madleen, what are they doing to Palestinians? More than what even we’re seeing, much more than what even we’re seeing.”
The Madleen — a British-flagged yacht named after Gaza’s first female fisherwoman, Madleen Kollab — departed from the Italian port of Catania on June 1. It carried a small cargo of symbolic humanitarian supplies and a crew made up of activists from across Europe and Latin America. The passengers include Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, French MEP Rima Hassan, Al Jazeera journalist Omar Fayyad, French journalist Yanis Mhamdi of Blast, longtime flotilla participant Pascal Maurieras, Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, French doctor Baptiste André, German activist Yasmin Acar, French climate activist Reva Viard, Spanish Sea Shepherd member Sergio Toribio, and Dutch marine engineering student Marco van Rennes.
“We know that civilians there are mobilizing. We know that politicians are being contacted. So we will do all of the political and legal advocacy to advocate for our colleagues on the Madleen. But wrapped up and integral to that message is that we must act to end the atrocities being committed against the Palestinian people,” Arraf told Al Manassa.
Israel’s foreign ministry said the navy had issued orders for the ship to change course, claiming the sea off Gaza’s coast is closed to unauthorized vessels under a “legal naval blockade.”
According to tracking data, the ship’s last known location was off the coast of Port Said in international waters with an anticipated entry into Gazan waters at 2 am. Arraf said the vessel had not entered Egyptian waters at anytime during its trip.
“The boat is not in Egyptian waters. It is sailing outside of Egyptian territorial waters and even outside what’s called the contiguous zone. But it is sailing north of Egypt on its way to Gaza. But there are no plans to enter Egyptian waters at any time,” Arraf said.
The Israeli military released a photo showing the moment Madleen was boarded and a video of soldiers distributing food and water to activists. But according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the arrest operation was anything but benign. Israeli forces reportedly surrounded the ship using quadcopter drones before deploying what activists described as a “white, irritating substance” onto the deck. Contact was then severed. The vessel was seized without any prior boarding alert, and the crew was restrained.
Meanwhile, the Freedom Flotilla’s maritime effort is being mirrored on land. On Monday morning, the Sumoud Convoy — a land-based initiative involving over 2,000 participants from Tunisia and Algeria — set off from Tunis for the Rafah border, planning to travel via Libya and Egypt in coordination with humanitarian organizations. A broader mobilisation, the Global Gaza March, is also underway across several countries.
“This is a wonderful step,” Arraf said, “because the siege on Gaza must be broken by air, sea, and land. In no uncertain terms, Israel has turned Gaza into an extermination camp, a death camp, and all its walls must be broken. And if our governments aren’t going to do it, then civilians should and will.”
She confirmed coordination between the flotilla, the Sumoud convoy, and the global march to Gaza. “We will continue because no one can be silent in this time. A genocide is happening on our watch, on our time. And history will look at us and say, what did you do?”
She added: “And history will look at the Egyptian government and say, what was the Egyptian government’s role? And I hope that they hear and realize this… Egypt’s place is on the side of humanity.”
According to the spokesperson for the Somoud convoy, Wael Nawar, “It carries a message to all free people of the world to act for stolen Palestinian rights and against all forms of occupation and genocide. It is also an attempt to open coordination channels with Arab and international humanitarian organizations to facilitate relief operations.”
Nawar added that the convoy would pass through several Tunisian provinces before entering Libya, in coordination with Libyan humanitarian groups. From there, it would proceed to the Salloum crossing in eastern Libya before entering Egyptian territory.
He said the convoy plans to coordinate with Egyptian humanitarian organizations to reach the Rafah crossing and enter Gaza, which he described as “suffering the most brutal killings, displacement, and genocide amid an unacceptable Arab silence.”
