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<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Gaza Freedom Flotilla Issues Distress Call \u2013 UN Experts Demand \u2018Safe Passage\u2019</h1>June 4, 2025</div>
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<img src="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Freedom-FLotilla_X.png" alt="" title="Freedom FLotilla_X" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="467" height="313" style="margin-right: 25px;">
The Freedom Flotilla's 'Madleen' is on route to Gaza. (Photo: via X)
<p><strong>By <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/palestine-chronicle-staff" title="Display all articles for Palestine Chronicle Staff">Palestine Chronicle Staff</a></strong> </p>
<blockquote>
<h3>UN experts, including Francesca Albanese, have called for safe
passage for the Madleen, urging Israel to \u201crefrain from any act of
hostility\u201d against the ship and its passengers.</h3>
</blockquote>
<p>Activists on board the Freedom Flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip
issued a distress signal during the night on Wednesday as drones
\u201crepeatedly\u201d hovered over the ship, while UN experts demanded their safe
passage.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>\u201cTeam on the land have heard back from Search and Rescue who have
reported that it was a Helenic Coast Guard Heron surveillance drone,\u201d
the statement noted, adding \u201ceveryone on the \u2018Madleen\u2019 is safe.\u201d</p>
<p>A few hours later, the Brazilian activist, Thiago Avila, issued
another audio alert saying: \u201cWe have been surrounded by drones for 22
minutes.\u201d</p>
<p>He said one of the two drones \u201cgains on us, comes closer to us and then turns back. This is five times already.\u201d</p>
<h4>\u2018Psychological Warfare\u2019</h4>
<p>The activist said they tried to confirm with the Greek coast guard
\u201cand it\u2019s not them\u201d and \u201cno other authority\u201d confirmed the origin of the
drones.</p>
<p>\u201cWe explained that we have been attacked by Israeli drones four weeks
ago, but still no one (has) confirmed the identity\u201d of the drones.</p>
<p>He said it could be \u201ca psychological warfare operation, this could be
surveillance drones but there is always the possibility that this could
be an attack as well.\u201d</p>
<h4>Global Call for Lobbying</h4>
<p>On Wednesday afternoon, the FFC issued another statement that \u201cAfter
drones repeatedly hovered over the Madleen last night, we need people of
the world to help tag and email their foreign ministry.\u201d</p>
<p>The volunteers aboard \u201care delivering life-saving aid to Gaza,\u201d the
statement noted, adding \u201cThey are unarmed, carrying only food, medicine,
and baby formula, and acting fully within international law.\u201d</p>
<p>\u201cIt\u2019s time for world governments to step up. Demand they protect
their citizens aboard the \u2018Madleen\u2019 and stop enabling Israel\u2019s war
crimes. Safe passage is a legal obligation, and a moral one,\u201d the
statement added.</p>
<p>The Madleen departed Catania, Sicily, on Sunday with twelve
humanitarians on board with the aim of breaking Israel\u2019s siege on Gaza.</p>
<p>The activists on board include climate activist Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a member of the European parliament.</p>
<h4>\u2018Peaceful Act of Resistance\u2019</h4>
<p>Named after Gaza\u2019s first and only fisherwoman, the Madleen\u2019s voyage
comes just one month after Israeli drones bombed Conscience, another
Freedom Flotilla aid ship, in international waters off the coast of
Malta.</p>
<p>The ship is carrying \u201curgently needed\u201d supplies for the people of
Gaza, including baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women\u2019s sanitary
products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and
children\u2019s prosthetics.</p>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">The FFC <a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/06/01/a-month-after-conscience-attack-freedom-flotilla-ship-madleen-sets-sail-for-gaza/">emphasized</a> \u201cthat this is a peaceful act of civil resistance.\u201d</p>
<p>\u201cAll 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,\u201d it stated.</p>
<p>The ship may be live-tracked <a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/ffc-tracker/">here</a>.</p>
<h4>\u2018Israel Must Not Interfere\u2019 \u2013 UN Experts</h4>
<p>UN experts, including Francesca Albanese, on Monday called for safe
passage for the Madleen, urging Israel to \u201crefrain from any act of
hostility\u201d against the ship and its passengers.</p>
<p>\u201cAid 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,\u201d the experts said.</p>
<p>They said the people of Gaza \u201chave 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,\u201d they said.</p>
<p>\u201cIsrael must not interfere with its freedom of navigation, long recognised under international law,\u201d the experts stressed.</p>
<h4>\u2018Comply with IHL\u2019</h4>
<p>They expressed serious concern for the safety of participants in the
Freedom Flotilla, given Israel\u2019s repeated violent attacks on human
rights defenders and UN and civilian humanitarian missions.</p>
<p>\u201cIsrael 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,\u201d the experts said.</p>
<p>\u201cAs the Freedom Flotilla Coalition\u2019s 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,\u201d they said.</p>
<h4>ICJ and ICC Cases</h4>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant
for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu for the war crime of starvation.</p>
<p>\u201cYet 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,\u201d the experts said.</p>
<p>\u201cOver six hundred days into Israel\u2019s starvation campaign and
genocidal violence against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the situation
is at its most horrific,\u201d they warned.</p>
<h4>US-Backed Aid Plan Slammed</h4>
<p>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.</p>
<p>\u201cThese practices violate international legal principles of dignity,
humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality,\u201d they said, noting
that child acute malnutrition had increased by more than 80% in March
2025.</p>
<p>\u201cThe accumulation of trucks carrying humanitarian aid at the Rafah
crossing while civilians starve and die is not a failure of coordination
\u2014 it is the deliberate and willful weaponisation of humanitarian aid,
and the international community seems to be complicit,\u201d the experts
said.</p>
<p>\u201cMember States have a legal obligation and a moral imperative to stop starvation and genocide in Gaza,\u201d they emphasized.</p>
<p>The experts urged the UN General Assembly to authorise the deployment
of peacekeepers to accompany humanitarian aid trucks under the \u2018Uniting
for Peace\u2019 provision of the UN Charter.</p>
<p>According to Israel\u2019s Army Radio, cited by the Anadolu news agency,
the Israeli military said \u201cit is enforcing the security maritime closure
on Gaza and is preparing for a variety of scenarios,\u201d without
elaborating further.</p>
<p><em>(The Palestine Chronicle)</em></p>
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