More than a hundred volunteers from the Global Sumud Flotilla were transferred to Greek vessels on Friday after Israeli forces seized at least 22 boats in international waters. Organisers say dozens more craft remain off southern Crete with food and medical supplies. Two activists, a Spanish Palestinian and a Brazilian, while released activists allege they were denied food and water and “forced to sleep on floors that were deliberately and repeatedly flooded” aboard an Israeli naval vessel. Former senator Mushtaq Ahmad, held last year for a similar mission, is also part of the flotilla.
The mission matters because Gaza’s catastrophe has outgrown the language of diplomatic caution. Since October 2023, Israel’s military assault has killed over 72,100 Palestinians and injured more than 171,800. Some 1.9 million have been forced from their homes and 1.6 million face acute food insecurity. Doctors Without Borders reports that Israel has destroyed nearly 90 per cent of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure and that people have been shot while queueing for water. In Gaza, even a queue for water has become a line of fire. The European Union warns that 101,000 children are at risk of malnutrition.
When volunteers organise a flotilla under these conditions, they become a humanitarian bridge and therefore, intercepting them hundreds of kilometres from Gaza has the character of piracy. Pakistan and other countries have already warned that the assault is a flagrant violation of international law, while Spain’s prime minister has urged the European Union to freeze ties with Israel.
Earlier in 2010, Israeli commandos stormed the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, killed nine passengers and wounded dozens. By seizing this week’s convoy near Greece, Israel once again signals that its blockade is extraterritorial, an assertion of impunity across the Mediterranean.
Islamabad has joined ten other governments in protest. It should now urge an emergency UN General Assembly session, support legal action by affected states and detained nationals before the ICJ and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and debate rules barring public procurement or defence cooperation with entities credibly linked to violations of humanitarian law. Civil society must keep the issue alive here in Pakistan. A handful of small boats have exposed a vast injustice. Statements are no longer enough. *