https://arab.news/4y8vd
Perhaps the only surprise about the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s Madleen mission is that there have not been more attempts to breach the inhumane blockade of Gaza during the last 20 months of Israel’s genocide.
Those on board have demonstrated considerable courage. Fifteen years ago last month, Israeli commandos boarded the Turkish vessel the Mavi Marmara. In the process, Israeli forces killed 10 activists. A UN inquiry determined that Israel’s actions were “unlawful,” including willful killing and torture, and that its forces “displayed an unacceptable level of brutality.” As always, Israel dismissed these findings and nobody was ever held accountable.
Most recently, in May, activists on another freedom flotilla blamed Israeli drones for bombing a vessel, the Conscience, in international waters off the coast of Malta. It is hard to imagine that any party other than Israel had the motivation and means to do this.
Those on board the Madleen, a boat named after a Gazan fisherwoman and which left Sicily on June 1, have an even more just cause. The situation in Gaza in 2010 was dreadful, but in 2025 it is an altogether new level of hell. Practically everything in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged. The health infrastructure has been targeted and brought to its knees. Israel has imposed a crippling siege, using starvation as a weapon of war. The latest full siege lasted 80 days before, grudgingly, the Israeli leadership bowed to international pressure and allowed the UN and other agencies to send in a few truckloads of aid. The reality is that such organizations are warning of state-imposed famine.
