Between 1 and 3 October 2025, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) intercepted 42 boats carrying aid supplies for Gaza and about 500 lawyers, parliamentarians and activists from 37 countries, including human rights defenders Greta Thunberg, and Aziz Ghali and Alexis Deswaef, Vice-Presidents of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH). This historical move is the largest naval humanitarian mission to Gaza. On Friday 3 October, the Israeli navy intercepted the last Flotilla boat deporting four of the 470 international humanitarians and human rights defenders, followed by the deportation of 137 more on 4 October. The detained human rights defenders, smeared by senior Israeli Ministers –– including Prime Minister Netanyahu, Minister of Defence, Israel Katz and Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir as operating “a campaign of delegitimization” against Israel, of being “terrorists” operating “Hamas’ flotilla”, or a “terror flotilla” –– have since been subject to inhumane, degrading treatment and punishment by the Israeli authorities.

The boats were intercepted about 70 nautical miles (130 kilometres) off Gaza “inside a zone that Israel is policing to stop any boats approaching”. The flotilla stated: “Prior to illegally boarding the ships, it appears as though the Israeli naval vessels intentionally damaged ship communications, in an attempt to block distress signals and stop the livestream of their illegal boat boarding.” One boat, the Mikeno, entered Palestine’s territorial waters (before contact with the vessel was lost), which is unprecedented since Israel unilaterally imposed its illegal blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2007. Some of the passengers released videos on Telegram highlighting that “they had been abducted and taken to Israel against their will, while reiterating that their mission was a non-violent humanitarian cause”.

The detained human rights defenders have reported inhumane, cruel, and degrading treatments and punishments from the IOF, including being deprived of water for more than 32 hours, deprived of sleep with forced interruptions from soldiers every two hours, forced to kneel for prolonged periods of up to five hours with their hands bound in zip-ties, while being filmed and exploited in a degrading manner. According to Adalah, the human rights defenders were denied access to lawyers, water, medications and access to bathrooms, while immigration conducted hearings without access to legal counsel or prior notice to lawyers.

On Saturday, two detained human rights defenders witnessed the extreme ill-treatment of Greta Thunberg, with one witness recalling “They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others”. Another witness reported that Greta Thunberg was “wrapped in the Israeli flag and paraded like a trophy”. Human rights defenders were told, “You’re in Israel — there’s no Gaza anymore”. They were told to “drink from the toilet”, and were locked in “an animal cage, a dog cage. The women were all standing there together . . . fifteen people stayed in cells for five people. There were writings written in blood . . . We saw that mothers had written the names of their children on the walls of the cells”.

In a video Israel’s Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir is seen taunting the detained humanitarians stating “these are flotilla terrorists” and later parading inside an Israeli jail warning “As I promised… the flotilla activists are now in security prison, treated like saboteurs — the bare minimum of everything.” On 3 October in a video address Ben Gvir warned that “[t]he Prime Minister's decision to allow the terror supporters from the flotilla to return to their countries - its foundation is a mistake. I think they must be kept here in an Israeli prison for a few months, so they can smell the scent of the terrorists' wing.”

1. Israel’s Attacks are Latest in Pattern of Attacks Against Humanitarian Flotillas

As part of the 17-year blockade and closure of Gaza, and its discriminatory apartheid policies and practices Israel has previously attacked humanitarian vessels approaching Gaza (mostly in international waters) in 2010, 2011, 2015 and in June 2025. All these flotillas were travelling to provide basic supplies to the Palestinian people in Gaza deprived of elements essential to its survival. Since October 2023, the situation has deteriorated following Israel’s genocidal military onslaught on Gaza, total siege, and infliction of famine conditions to starve the Palestinian population.

On 28 March 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) indicated preliminary measures as part of the case Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel) and recognised that famine was “setting in, with at least 31 people, including 27 children, having already died of malnutrition and dehydration”. On 22 August 2025, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirmed, in an overdue report, a case of famine in Gaza, considering “that over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death” added to “[a]nother 1.07 million people (54 percent) are in Emergency (IPC Phase 4)”. The IPC predicted a catastrophic evolution “[b]etween mid-August and the end of September 2025, conditions are expected to further worsen with Famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis” and predicting that “through June 2026… 41,000 severe cases of children [are] at heightened risk of death.”

2 Israel’s Designation of Palestine’s EEZ as an “Active Combat Zone” is Flawed

Israel’s rationale behind this attack is plain with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating “The Hamas flotilla . . . chooses the illegal path — sailing into a combat zone and breaching the lawful naval blockade.”

Blockade is prohibited act of collective punishment

The attacks on the Flotilla, breach a number of legal instruments, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which provides that coastal states control their territorial waters (within 12 nautical miles from their coast) where they are entitled to full sovereignty. Beyond that and up to 200 nautical miles is the Exclusive Economic Zone over which they also have “sovereign rights”, including regulating activities and allowing other states’ freedom of navigation. As highlighted by Rüdiger Wolfrum, former president of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, “freedom of navigation is one of the oldest and most recognized principles in the legal regime governing ocean space. […] this principle constitutes one of the pillars of the law of the sea and was at the origins of modern international law.” Defending this principle, Hugo Grotius advanced a number of arguments in 1609, notably that the “sea was the fundamental avenue for communication and cooperation among States and therefore such avenue should be free and not controlled by one State”.

In this regard IHL also imposes an obligation to allow the rapid and free passage of humanitarian aid for civilians in need. Israel, as the Occupying Power, must make sure that the civilian population receives “adequate medical and food supplies”, or if impossible, permit and facilitate relief operations by Third States. Israel’s obligation in this regard is even strengthened in the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the [OPT], including East Jerusalem, which explains that: “The dependence of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and especially of the Gaza Strip, on Israel for the provision of basic goods and services impairs the enjoyment of fundamental human rights, in particular the right to self-determination”. Failure of States to assist in enforcing these provisions constitutes a violation of their obligation to ensure respect for IHL as per Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions.

Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip further constitutes a prohibited act of collective punishment in violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Convention (1949).

Blockade is Illegal Act of Apartheid

Not only does the blockade violate international humanitarian law (IHL), it also furthers the oppression and domination of the Palestinian people by Israel, through impeding the freedom of movement of Palestinians, deepening the strategic fragmentation of the Palestinian and people and preventing the access of essential goods to Gaza –– amounting to an inhuman act of apartheid.

Blockade part of Illegal Occupation which Israel must Withdraw

Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory is unlawful, and Israel’s blockade and designation of an “active combat zone” to maintain the occupation of Gaza is unlawful. On 19 July 2024, the ICJ delivered a landmark Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the [OPT], including East Jerusalem concluding inter alia, that Israel’s “control of the land, sea and air borders” around Gaza amount to effective control over the Gaza Strip and continued occupation. The Court found that Israel’s presence in the Palestinian territory –– including its control over the sea off Gaza –– is unlawful and must be brought to an end “as rapidly as possible”.

Blockade of Humanitarian Aid is Act of Genocide

Further, there is no such thing as “an active combat zone in Gaza”, where Israel is rather committing genocidal acts. The finding of a plausible case of genocide handed down by the ICJ on 26 January 2024 was strengthened by the International Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, which concluded: “that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have had and continue to have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”. By preventing the vessels of the flotilla from reaching Gaza, Israel is committing another genocidal act, to the extent that the humanitarian aid brought by the vessels was intended to alleviate these conditions of life calculated to bring about the death of the Palestinian people.

Finally, Israel has no right to arrest and detain, or taunt and smear, passengers of the Flotilla, which may amount to Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law, a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Contrary to what Israel advances, nothing justifies these arrests, in particular not the alleged breaking of the blockade, since this blockade is illegal as explained above.

In light of the above, Al-Haq:

• Calls on Third States to urgently ensure the safety and protection of the Flotilla and its crew, and calls on activists and people of conscience to support and join the international efforts to ensure the delivery of lifesaving aid to Gaza;

• Reminds Third States of their obligations to ensure respect for IHL and prevent Genocide, as well as the orders of the International Court of Justice in three separate sets of Provisional Measures Orders, to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza at scale, in order to prevent irreparable harm to the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention;

• Calls on Third States to apply a full two-way arms embargo, and political and economic sanctions on Israel, pursuant to the ICJ’s 2024 Advisory Opinion, along with its unseating from the United Nations General Assembly for its protracted aggravated breaches of the United Nations Charter.

• Calls on Third States to apply universal jurisdiction and ensure full accountability for criminal acts of Israeli perpetrators against Palestinians in Gaza, and human rights defenders from the Global Sumud persecuted in Israeli detention.