ICSPR Calls for the Immediate Release of the Sumud Flotilla Activists and for Holding the Occupation Accountable for Maritime Piracy and Assaults on Solidarity Activists

Date: May 3, 2025

Press Release

ICSPR Calls for the Immediate Release of the Sumud Flotilla Activists and for Holding the Occupation Accountable for Maritime Piracy and Assaults on Solidarity Activists

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemns the crime of maritime piracy committed by the Israeli occupation forces against the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, along with the armed assaults that accompanied it, the abduction and arbitrary detention of hundreds of international activists, and the excessive use of force that resulted in serious injuries among them.

ICSPR affirms that intercepting humanitarian vessels, disabling a number of them, leaving activists stranded at sea without protection or means of communication, and taking others to detention centers inside the occupied territory constitute a flagrant violation of the rules of international humanitarian law and the law of the sea, and amount to a full-fledged war crime requiring immediate international accountability.

According to documented information, 177 activists of various nationalities were abducted, 77 of whom were released on the shores of the Greek island of Crete, while 34 activists were transferred to hospitals as a result of serious injuries, as others continue to be held in alarming conditions. ICSPR also condemns testimonies from solidarity activists reporting that several detainees were subjected to severe beatings and ill-treatment, in a manner that constitutes a grave breach of human rights standards.

In this context, ICSPR denounces the detention of activists Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek in Ashkelon prison, and the harsh treatment they were reportedly subjected to, stressing that these practices reflect a systematic policy targeting humanitarian action and international solidarity activists and are intended to intimidate all peaceful efforts supporting an end to genocide and the lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

ICSPR further affirms that what happened to the Sumud Flotilla is not an isolated incident, but part of an ongoing policy aimed at suppressing international solidarity and silencing free voices, although such practices will not succeed in breaking the will of peoples or halting the global humanitarian movement standing in solidarity with Palestine. ICSPR stresses that continued impunity not only encourages the repetition of such crimes, but also threatens the credibility of the international system as a whole and places the world before a real moral and legal test, where justice and freedom remain stronger than tools of repression and intimidation.

Accordingly, ICSPR emphasizes the following:

• The immediate and unconditional release of all detained activists.

• The urgent provision of international protection for solidarity activists and guarantees for their safety.

• The opening of an independent and transparent international investigation and the prosecution of those responsible for this crime.

• Guaranteeing freedom of navigation and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip without obstruction.

• Activating international accountability mechanisms, including the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

• Strengthening diplomatic pressure through third-party governments and international institutions to ensure protection for the activists and accountability for those responsible.

• Calling on free people around the world to continue popular mobilization demanding an end to Israeli crimes, the blockade imposed on the Palestinian people, the violations committed against the activists of the Sumud Flotilla, and their immediate release.