International Law

Under cover of darkness on 9 June 2025, the Madleen—a modest British-flagged aid ship carrying baby formula, rice, and medical supplies—found itself surrounded by Israeli naval forces some 100-160 km off Gaza’s coast. The activists onboard, including Greta Thunberg and French MEP Rima Hassan, had hoped to draw attention to Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. Instead, they got an up-close demonstration of Israel’s naval blockade enforcement. Footage shows the group—calm but determined—raising their hands as Israeli commandos boarded, their life jackets serving as unintentional symbols of how perilous compassion has become in these waters. ...

Meet the key players Benjamin Netanyahu – Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, now in his sixth term, is a master of political survival. His current tenure is propped up by far-right allies, a necessity given his ongoing corruption trials (fraud, bribery, and breach of trust). His primary objectives are maintaining power, weakening the judiciary to shield himself from legal accountability, and balancing the demands of his extremist coalition partners while attempting to project an image of statesmanship to the outside world. ...

The urgency of the mission In the pre-dawn stillness of June 1st, 2025, a modest vessel slipped out of Catania’s port in Sicily, its silhouette sharp against the Mediterranean blue. The Madleen, neither a warship nor a tanker, carried no tourists, no cargo of luxury—only defiance. Her destination: Gaza. Her mission: to challenge Israel’s suffocating blockade, now in its 18th year and increasingly lethal. This departure comes not as an isolated gesture, but as a direct riposte to last month’s drone attack on the humanitarian ship Conscience—a strike that occurred brazenly in international waters, just one more entry in Israel’s growing rap sheet of maritime belligerence. ...