Freedom Flotilla Attack Backfires Hilariously on Israel!

Right, so, as many of you will no doubt know by now, the crew of the Freedom Flotilla vessel Madleen were attacked by Israel late on Sunday night into Monday morning UK time in international waters some 60 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, in a move that constitutes a blatant act of piracy. We widely expected something like this to happen of course, that Israel would seek to stop the vessel, but to choose to break international law to do so, was peak arrogance from a nation that figures it is untouchable. Well that’s not so much the case as it turns out, because just a day later, their actions have blown up in their faces.
Not only has the Madleen now become a symbol of the struggle to survive of the Palestinian people, but their capture and detention, due to Israel not thinking things through as perhaps they ought to have done, has become an even larger problem than one small boat carrying a bit of aid to Gaza ever did. By making the Madleen a big international issue, they’ve given the Freedom Flotilla Coalition everything they wanted and so in a sense the mission has succeeded far beyond expectations. But it’s actually even worse for Israel than just that and they aren’t alone in copping some flak here either.
Right, so late at night on June 8th into the morning of June 9th, the Israeli navy committed an act of piracy in international waters as it intercepted and seized the UK-flagged humanitarian vessel Madleen, forcibly detaining its 12-member civilian crew. The vessel was part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, attempting to deliver humanitarian aid—specifically baby formula, rice, medical supplies, and desalination equipment—a token amount of aid, symbolic-to Gaza amidst what has form months been a war of starvation on the besieged Strip.
The Madleen was intercepted while sailing deep in international waters. This matters. Under international maritime law—specifically the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)—a vessel in international waters is under the exclusive jurisdiction of its flag state, in this case, the United Kingdom.
The attack by the Israeli navy, which involved disabling communications, deploying drones to release chemical agents, and boarding the ship with armed forces, is an unmistakable act of state piracy. The vessel posed no threat. Its mission, organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was to draw attention to the starvation policies imposed on Gaza by attempting to deliver vital goods that Israel has denied entrance for months, even the token amount the ship carried.
Instead of allowing this peaceful mission to proceed—or at least monitoring it diplomatically—Israel opted for military aggression. And by doing so, it has violated several core tenets of international law and established treaties.
Where they might have been gloating over their success in stopping one small boat and a dozen peace activists as if they’ve averted some major strike, Israel isn’t laughing so much this morning as the fallout is starting to become clearer. Perhaps the most serious immediate consequence of Israel’s actions was the war crimes complaint filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation, the HRF with the UK’s Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit just yesterday. The HRF named Israel’s elite naval unit Shayetet 13, as well as Vice Admiral David Saar Salama, the commander of Israel’s Navy, as primary perpetrators.
The legal complaint accuses those named of:
• Violating the Geneva Conventions Act 1957, especially with regard to obstructing humanitarian relief.
• Breaching the International Criminal Court Act 2001, under which crimes against humanity and war crimes fall within UK jurisdiction.
• Contravening Section 134 of the UK Criminal Justice Act 1988, prohibiting torture and cruel treatment.
• Violating UNCLOS Article 92, which grants full jurisdiction over ships in international waters to the flag state.
• Ignoring binding ICJ provisional measures from January, March, and May 2024 that demand unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.
The complaint does not stop there. It calls on British authorities to interview the detained Madleen crew, gather evidence for potential universal jurisdiction prosecution, and issue arrest warrants for Israeli naval officers should they ever enter UK or allied jurisdictions.
It is no exaggeration to say that Israel may soon face prosecutorial scrutiny from within the UK itself, especially as pressure builds from civil society and international legal observers and for those thinking that the UK, being as pro Israel as its leadership is, as pro Israel as the Met Police itself is seen to be, not least over their actions against pro Palestine demonstrations and the recent purchase of Israeli SandCats used to ill effect in Gaza during the genocide now here to be used in the UK, the whole world is now looking at this case, due to how Israel have handled it, they have made this story as big as it is.
But here also lies one of the most damning indictments of the UK government. The Madleen sailed under the British flag, which under international law means its seizure was effectively an attack on British sovereign territory. As a spokesperson for the HRF has stated:
‘“The Madleen was British territory,” said a spokesperson for the Hind Rajab Foundation. “An armed assault, use of chemical agents, and kidnapping of civilians aboard a UK ship are not just attacks on international law—they are attacks on the sovereignty of this country. The British government has a binding duty to investigate and act.”
The Foundation has called for the immediate release of the abductees, warning that continued inaction may set a precedent for further violations against humanitarian efforts.’
In any other context, the UK government would have demanded immediate release, launched criminal investigations, and potentially retaliated, either diplomatically or forcefully. Can you imagine if instead of being Israel being the perpetrators of this piracy, it had been the Houthis of Yemen? Starmer would have been straight to the dressing up box for his military fatigues and would have bombed them. Instead, as I spoke on yesterday, Whitehall and all legal sign-offs have been bypassed, because they would have pointed out the illegality of Israel’s actions and instead, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy issued a truly weak-kneed statement describing the seizure as – once again it is that word - “intolerable” and urging Israel to resolve it “with restraint and within humanitarian law. Literally no UK main media are covering this at all, we’re being intentionally denied news of what our government is not doing regarding British flagged shipping versus Israel here.
The thing is though, that Israel already broken humanitarian law with an act of piracy, so we’re past that point. You’ve dodged your legal obligations and frankly in my view left yourselves wide open now for prosecution in connection with your failure to uphold international humanitarian law yourselves. A mess Israel had made for itself, the UK has now made itself complicit in and it sends a message out that Britian won’t protect British flagged vessels from Israeli attack.
By failing to defend the sovereignty of its own flagged vessel—and the rights of UK citizens or residents aboard—the UK government has once again shown that it will not challenge Israel, even when British law and sovereignty are flagrantly violated.
Starmer, despite his legal background and claims to care about international norms as implied there, has refused to even label this incident a breach of international law. That refusal is telling. It reveals a government more concerned with maintaining alignment with Tel Aviv than with protecting its own citizens or upholding international law. Zionist without equivocation, Starmer reminds up of his loyalties time after time.
Contrast this with France, which has formally summoned Israel’s diplomatic representative and demanded the release of its detained nationals, including MEP Rima Hassan. Spain, Ireland, Turkey, Brazil and more have condemned Israel in far stronger terms than Britain has.
This is more than diplomatic cowardice—it is a complete abandonment of legal and moral responsibility.
Once the Madleen crew were dragged into Tel Aviv, Israel’s interior ministry offered them an ultimatum: you can sign deportation notices and board flights home, or refuse and face detention. Well this has turned into another whoops situation for the apartheid state.
This has spectacularly backfired. Eight of the twelve detainees, including French MEP Rima Hassan, a literal member of the European parliament, have refused to sign. They are daring Israel to imprison them and thereby intensify the international backlash. An excerpt from Israeli news outlet KAN, covering Hassan’s stance reading:
‘Israel’s public broadcaster Kan is reporting that French-Palestinian Member of European Parliament Rima Hassan has refused to sign deportation papers.
According to Kan, Hassan will be taken to a detention facility in the city of Gibeon.
In total, Kan said, eight of the Madleen’s 12 crew members are refusing to sign the deportation papers, and the four who signed will leave Israel on separate flights “during the day”.
Earlier, Suhad Bishara, the legal director at Adalah, a Palestinian-run legal centre in Israel representing the detained activists, said some of them may “not agree to fly without a legal consultation, because the assumption is that they will have to need to sign some documents”.
“In this case, they will be moved to a detention centre in Ramleh, awaiting a tribunal for immigration,” Bishara said.’
Of the four who have signed deportation notices, Greta Thunberg appears to be at least one of these as she has been pictured on a plane, though there are conflicting stories about how willingly some of these individuals have actually signed.
Israel faces a massive problem of its own making again here therefore.
If they were to just release the crew, for the sake of covering this notion, it would prove that they had no legal grounds for arrest, which we know they didn’t, Israel committed piracy to detain them.
If they jail them, word is they’ll be headed to Givon Prison in Ramleh, it would simplify amplify the PR crisis israel has created for itself and would invite even more human rights and legal scrutiny.
If they forcibly deport them, having not signed, they again violate international law and sovereignty.
Every single outcome makes an already really bad problem for israel even worse and exposes Israel as legally weak, morally bankrupt and politically afraid.
Ironically, in stopping the Madleen, Israel has guaranteed its success.
What was originally a small flotilla mission with limited international coverage has become a global headline about illegal blockade and state violence, a legal flashpoint sparking war crimes investigations in London, the Met cannot ignore it, there is far too much focus on this now and it is yet another moral reckoning that Israel cannot win.
The Freedom Flotilla’s mission—to expose and disrupt Israel’s war of starvation on Gaza—has been fulfilled not through arrival but through the aggression Israel has meted out against them, that they have faced along the way. Israel was so afraid of one small boat carrying baby formula that it responded with military action and chemical drones before the vessel had even entered their illegally occupied waters.
This is not the sign of strength. It is the symptom of a regime afraid of the truth.
But let us also not forget the context here. Gaza is not just suffering—it is starving. According to reports from the UN and multiple humanitarian NGOs, over 90% of Gaza’s population is food insecure. People are dying due to hunger and dehydration, injuries and infections that are not healing due to malnourishment and even the act of trying to get food from the Israeli run distribution hubs is just as likely to see you killed as well.
Israel’s deliberate obstruction of aid, destruction of agricultural land and infrastructure, and refusal to allow humanitarian convoys into Gaza is part of a documented war of starvation. The International Court of Justice has already ordered Israel to cease obstructing aid—a directive Israel continues to ignore.
The Madleen was carrying the very supplies Israel would not allow through its land crossings. That Israel chose to intercept these supplies, small as they were, at sea confirms what many have argued for months: this is not about security—it is about domination. It is genocide.
Zionism, as it stands, is now exposed not just as a colonial ideology but as a system incapable of confronting peaceful dissent. A state confident in its legality and morality does not fear baby formula.
Israel’s seizure of the Madleen was supposed to send a message: dissent will not be tolerated, and even unarmed humanitarian missions will be crushed. Instead, it has sent an entirely different message to the world, one that shows that Zionism is so fragile it cannot allow a single aid ship to sail unimpeded, that international law is not dead, but must be enforced and that resistance in the face of injustice, even by twelve people in a boat, can rattle an entire state apparatus.
The UK now faces its own reckoning. Will it fulfill its legal obligations, enforce international law, and protect its own citizens and flagged vessels? Or will it continue to cower behind platitudes while war crimes unfold before its eyes? Such a government does not speak for me.
For every person watching, reading, or learning about the Madleen, now is the time to act:
Demand accountability from elected officials, demand from your MP information about what the government is going to do about its flagged vessel being attacked, other than just call it intolerable.
Support the legal efforts to prosecute war criminals, donate to the HRF if you can afford to so they can continue their prosecution of Israeli war criminals wherever they hide and amplify the voices of the Madleen crew and the starving people of Gaza, because they refuse to be silenced. We need to refuse to be silent too, because in silence lies complicity.
The battle for Gaza is not just being fought with bombs or aid—it's being fought with truth. And for now, that truth has got a name and it is an ame that needs to haunt Israel: Madleen.
For more on the fury and immediate aftermath of the crews capture and the excuses the British government were readying to make, check out this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch.
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