Ann Wright
Consortium News / June 9, 2025
The Israeli military intercepted the sailboat early Monday and abducted its crew and participants and confiscated its cargo.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s sailboat, Madleen was intercepted in international waters early Monday by the Israeli military at 3:02 am CEST at 31.95236° N, 32.38880° E and its crew has been brought to Israel.
The ship was unlawfully boarded, its 12 unarmed civilian crew and participants abducted, and its life-saving cargo —including baby formula, food and medical supplies — confiscated, as well as personal possessions taken.
To the knowledge of the Flotilla organizers, no one from the Madleen was injured during the interception.
[Israel took the boat to the Port of Ashdod south of Tel Aviv, CNN reports. Israel says it will deport the Madleen’s crew and participants, BBC reports. But only after the crew is forced to watch a 45-minute video reportedly showing atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, according to a tweet by Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz.U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese is calling for the immediate release of the captive and for more boats in the region to continue to challenge Israel’s sea blockade around Gaza.]
Immediately after the interception, the crew and participants were moved from the Madleen and taken to an Israeli ship. That is only the second time that crew/participants have been taken off a flotilla ship. The first was in 2011 from the Dignite, which sailed from France.
Prior to the intercept, drones flew around Madleen and a white powder substance was dropped on the decks. It is not known what the substance was.
After losing communication with Madleen, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition began posting pre-recorded video messages from those onboard, [including high-profile activist Greta Thunberg].
“If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupation forces, or forces that support Israel.”
Amnesty International put out the following statement:
“By forcibly intercepting and blocking the Madleen, Israel has once again ignored its legal obligations towards civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip. The crew were unarmed activists and human rights defenders on a humanitarian mission. They must be released immediately and unconditionally. They must also be protected from torture and other ill-treatment.”
British MP Nadia Whittome tweeted:
“Today, I wrote a letter urging the Foreign Secretary to take action regarding the Madleen aid flotilla, which has been seized by Israel in a violation of international law. I also joined the huge Freedom Flotilla Coalition emergency protest outside the Foreign Office.”
French leftist leader Jean-Luc Melenchon told a rally in Paris:
“The crew members of the Freedom Flotilla went barehanded in a small boat to face genocide and a blockade. The arrest ordered by Netanyahu is an act of piracy in international waters, coupled with the detention of an elected official under parliamentary immunity.”
SOS messages from the volunteers have been sent to the world.
In a statement issued by the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition, Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney and Freedom Flotilla organizer, said:
“Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard the Madleen. This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the ICJ’s binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza. These volunteers are not subject to Israeli jurisdiction and cannot be criminalized for delivering aid or challenging an illegal blockade — their detention is arbitrary, unlawful, and must end immediately.”
The statement continued,
“Israel is once again acting with total impunity. It has defied the International Court of Justice’s binding orders to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza, disregarded the international laws protecting civilian navigation, and dismissed the demands of millions worldwide calling for an end to the siege and genocide.”
This latest act of Israeli aggression follows the unpunished Israeli drone attack on May 1, 2025 on the flotilla’s vessel Conscience, which left four civilian volunteers injured and the ship disabled and burning in European waters. That unprovoked attack on the Conscience is a violation of international law that has not been addressed by the international community.
Now, Israel has escalated its violence by targeting another peaceful civilian vessel.
“The world’s governments remained silent when Conscience was bombed. Now Israel is testing that silence again,” said Tan Safi another Freedom Flotilla organizer. “Every hour without consequences emboldens Israel to escalate its attacks on civilians, aid workers, and the very foundations of international law.”
Flotilla lawyers will meet volunteers while they are in prison in Israel and advocate for their release.
Flotilla organizers are asking for volunteers to put pressure on embassies to arrange immediate consular visits to the prison to speak with the French, Spanish, German, Swedish, Turkish, Brazilian and Dutch citizens who have been captured.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition demands:
- An end to the illegal and deadly siege of Gaza
- The immediate release of all abducted volunteers
- The immediate delivery of humanitarian aid directly to Palestinians that is independent of the control of the occupying power
- Full accountability for the military assaults on Madleen and Conscience
Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a colonel. She also was a U.S. diplomat for 16 years; she resigned in 2003 in opposition to the US war on Iraq; she has been in Israeli prison twice with the Gaza flotilla missions and has been on segments of four other missions; she is the co-author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience
