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In
the early hours of 30 April 2026, the Israeli Navy intercepted vessels
of the Global Sumud Flotilla sailing off the coast of Crete carrying
humanitarian aid. The Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR), the
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the
Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, denounce this
raid and call on the Israeli authorities to immediately release all the
activists illegally detained, and call on the Greek authorities to act
immediately to secure the activists’ safe release.
Athens-Paris-Geneva, 30 April 2026 - The assaults,
interceptions of vessels, seizures, abductions, enforced
disappearances of activists, and damage inflicted by Israeli naval
forces on the vessels of the humanitarian mission, as reported based
on available information, constitute serious unlawful acts in
international waters, as they undermine the internationally protected
freedom of navigation and endanger human life, in breach of
international maritime law obligations, including under the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the 1974 SOLAS
(Safety of Life at Sea) Convention and the 1979 SAR Convention.
It is a primary
obligation of the Greek authorities to provide assistance to persons
in distress within their Search and Rescue (SAR) zone and to conduct
the necessary rescue operations to prevent risks to human life and
ensure maritime safety, as well as to ensure that survivors are
disembarked at a place of safety where their basic needs are met.
While, according to available information, the vessels of the
humanitarian mission had repeatedly issued distress signals (SOS), no
rescue operation appears, at this stage, to have been undertaken by
the Hellenic Coast Guard.
Humanitarian flotilla
missions operate within the framework of international humanitarian
law, under which vessels carrying humanitarian aid, when not
participating in hostilities, retain protected status, as well as
under the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which
guarantees freedom of navigation on the high seas. In conjunction
with binding United
Nations Security Council resolutions requiring the
removal of obstacles to humanitarian assistance, such missions
constitute legally grounded efforts to provide aid to civilian
populations. It should be noted that the ongoing genocide in Gaza,
alongside the blockade, which has been going on for almost 20 years,
affecting the entire population, are prohibited under the Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the Hague
Conventions and Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as well
as other instruments of humanitarian law.
The attack against the
Global Sumud Flotilla by Israeli forces, 650 nautical miles from the
Gaza Strip, off Crete, on the high seas and within the Greek SAR
zone, constitutes a continuation of Israel’s unlawful actions, in
violation of international criminal law and international
humanitarian law provisions concerning the unimpeded delivery of
humanitarian aid and the prohibition of starvation of civilians. It
also gravely infringes the fundamental human rights of the
disappeared activists, including the right to life, the prohibition
of torture and other ill-treatment, the right to a fair trial, and
the right to humane conditions of detention.
The Hellenic League for
Human Rights (HLHR), the International Federation for Human Rights
(FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the
framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights
Defenders, stress the obligation of the Greek authorities to carry
out rescue operations and to ensure the protection of human life at
sea. Greece cannot remain in a position of inaction. Silence or
passivity in the face of such practices is not a neutral stance; it
fosters impunity, weakens international law, and politically and
institutionally exposes those states that choose not to act.
The
signatory organisations urgently call on the Israeli authorities to
guarantee, in all circumstances, the physical integrity and
psychological well-being of all the peaceful activists arrested and
to immediately and unconditionally release all those illegally
detained. HLHR and the Observatory further urge the Israeli
authorities to refrain from any further harassment or intimidation
against human rights defenders, whether domestic or international,
who seek to denounce the ongoing genocide in Gaza and to uphold the
human rights of all Palestinians.
The signatory
organisations call on the Greek government to act immediately: to
seek full clarification from the Israeli authorities, to demand the
safe release and protection of the members of the mission, to
activate all available diplomatic and legal means, and to formally
inform the competent international bodies of the incident that took
place within Greece’s Search and Rescue area of responsibility.
They further call on
the competent international and European bodies to intervene without
delay to investigate the events, ensure the protection of the
mission’s members, and guarantee the respect of international law
and international maritime l
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