Madrid, November 10 (European Press) –
The Israeli Attorney General’s Office filed a petition on Monday before a court in Haifa seeking permission to confiscate the 50 boats used by Freedom Flotilla activists to attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, arguing that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) would have financed and supported these actions.
Thus, the petition says, “a large number of ships” are owned by an alleged front company for the Palestinian group, known as Neptune Cyber, which it accuses of operating under the umbrella of the NGO Palestinian Congress of Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), which Israel links to Hamas, as reported by The Times of Israel.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has not yet identified the ship owners, although they confirm that Israel has the authority to seize these ships in accordance with international law, after the navy intercepted all of them in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea.
In this sense, he asserts that the initiatives “were unprecedented in scale and impact, with organized planning and centralized leadership.” The Israeli Public Prosecution concluded that it “sought to pose a challenge to the navy and break the naval blockade (imposed on the Strip in 2007, which intensified after the attacks of October 7, 2023).”
The Israeli authorities detained hundreds of activists who were on board the 50 boats used in both initiatives, which attempted to reach the coast of Gaza in early October to deliver humanitarian aid, in the midst of the Israeli military attack on the Strip.
Several activists, including Spanish nationals, later reported that they were subjected to various violations during the period in which they remained in the custody of Israeli security forces until their deportation.
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