[News] Gaza Freedom Flotilla Issues Distress Call – UN Experts Demand ‘Safe Passage’

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com
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Gaza Freedom Flotilla Issues Distress Call – UN Experts Demand ‘Safe
Passage’June 4, 2025
------------------------------
The Freedom Flotilla's 'Madleen' is on route to Gaza. (Photo: via X)

*By Palestine Chronicle Staff
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/palestine-chronicle-staff>*

UN experts, including Francesca Albanese, have called for safe passage for
the Madleen, urging Israel to “refrain from any act of hostility” against
the ship and its passengers.

Activists on board the Freedom Flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip issued a
distress signal during the night on Wednesday as drones “repeatedly”
hovered over the ship, while UN experts demanded their safe passage.

At 11:24pm CEST +1,68km away from Greek territorial waters, a drone began
to hover above the Madleen, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said in a
statement.

“Team on the land have heard back from Search and Rescue who have reported
that it was a Helenic Coast Guard Heron surveillance drone,” the statement
noted, adding “everyone on the ‘Madleen’ is safe.”

A few hours later, the Brazilian activist, Thiago Avila, issued another
audio alert saying: “We have been surrounded by drones for 22 minutes.”

He said one of the two drones “gains on us, comes closer to us and then
turns back. This is five times already.”
‘Psychological Warfare’

The activist said they tried to confirm with the Greek coast guard “and
it’s not them” and “no other authority” confirmed the origin of the drones.

“We explained that we have been attacked by Israeli drones four weeks ago,
but still no one (has) confirmed the identity” of the drones.

He said it could be “a psychological warfare operation, this could be
surveillance drones but there is always the possibility that this could be
an attack as well.”
Global Call for Lobbying

On Wednesday afternoon, the FFC issued another statement that “After drones
repeatedly hovered over the Madleen last night, we need people of the world
to help tag and email their foreign ministry.”

The volunteers aboard “are delivering life-saving aid to Gaza,” the
statement noted, adding “They are unarmed, carrying only food, medicine,
and baby formula, and acting fully within international law.”

“It’s time for world governments to step up. Demand they protect their
citizens aboard the ‘Madleen’ and stop enabling Israel’s war crimes. Safe
passage is a legal obligation, and a moral one,” the statement added.

The Madleen departed Catania, Sicily, on Sunday with twelve humanitarians
on board with the aim of breaking Israel’s siege on Gaza.

The activists on board include climate activist Greta Thunberg and Rima
Hassan, a member of the European parliament.
‘Peaceful Act of Resistance’

Named after Gaza’s first and only fisherwoman, the Madleen’s voyage comes
just one month after Israeli drones bombed Conscience, another Freedom
Flotilla aid ship, in international waters off the coast of Malta.

The ship is carrying “urgently needed” supplies for the people of Gaza,
including baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products,
water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s
prosthetics.

The FFC emphasized
<https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/06/01/a-month-after-conscience-attack-freedom-flotilla-ship-madleen-sets-sail-for-gaza/>
“that this is a peaceful act of civil resistance.”

“All volunteers and crew aboard Madleen are trained in nonviolence. They
are sailing unarmed, united by the shared belief that Palestinians deserve
the same rights, freedom, and dignity as all people,” it stated.

The ship may be live-tracked here <https://freedomflotilla.org/ffc-tracker/>
.
‘Israel Must Not Interfere’ – UN Experts

UN experts, including Francesca Albanese, on Monday called for safe passage
for the Madleen, urging Israel to “refrain from any act of hostility”
against the ship and its passengers.

“Aid is desperately needed for the people of Gaza to forestall
annihilation, and this initiative is a symbolic and powerful effort to
deliver it. Israel should remember that the world is watching closely and
refrain from any act of hostility against the Freedom Flotilla Coalition
and its passengers,” the experts said.

They said the people of Gaza “have the right to receive aid through their
own territorial waters even under occupation, and the Coalition ship has
the right to free passage in international waters to reach the people of
Gaza,” they said.

“Israel must not interfere with its freedom of navigation, long recognised
under international law,” the experts stressed.
‘Comply with IHL’

They expressed serious concern for the safety of participants in the
Freedom Flotilla, given Israel’s repeated violent attacks on human rights
defenders and UN and civilian humanitarian missions.

“Israel has imposed a full blockade on Gaza for 17 years. This blockade has
been total and absolute since 2 March 2025, preventing aid from entering
the Strip for over 80 days, only recently allowing a trickle of aid to
enter,” the experts said.

“As the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s ship approaches Palestinian
territorial waters off Gaza, Israel must adhere to international law and
comply with orders from the International Court of Justice to ensure
unimpeded access for humanitarian aid,” they said.
ICJ and ICC Cases

The experts pointed out that in March 2024, the International Court of
Justice (ICJ) issued provisional measures recognising that famine and
starvation were rampant in Gaza, creating a risk of genocide.

In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the
arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu for the war crime of starvation.

“Yet on 1 March 2025, he announced that the entry of all goods and supplies
to the Gaza Strip would be halted, flagrantly defying international law,”
the experts said.

“Over six hundred days into Israel’s starvation campaign and genocidal
violence against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the situation is at its
most horrific,” they warned.
US-Backed Aid Plan Slammed

The experts stressed that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, backed by
Israel and the US, is using aid as a weapon of war to displace, humiliate
and corral civilians.

“These practices violate international legal principles of dignity,
humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality,” they said, noting
that child acute malnutrition had increased by more than 80% in March 2025.

“The accumulation of trucks carrying humanitarian aid at the Rafah crossing
while civilians starve and die is not a failure of coordination — it is the
deliberate and willful weaponisation of humanitarian aid, and the
international community seems to be complicit,” the experts said.

“Member States have a legal obligation and a moral imperative to stop
starvation and genocide in Gaza,” they emphasized.

The experts urged the UN General Assembly to authorise the deployment of
peacekeepers to accompany humanitarian aid trucks under the ‘Uniting for
Peace’ provision of the UN Charter.

According to Israel’s Army Radio, cited by the Anadolu news agency, the
Israeli military said “it is enforcing the security maritime closure on
Gaza and is preparing for a variety of scenarios,” without elaborating
further.

*(The Palestine Chronicle)*
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