Global Sumud Flotilla heading for Gaza

Just underlines their obvious rabid antisemitism really, no surprises there 😞

It can't be a coincidence. Reprehensible behaviour.

Looks as though they deliberately timed their approach to coincide with Yom Kippur, just as Hamas took advantage of Simchat Torah on 7/10.

There’s apparently commentary on Middle East Eyes page on YouTube

There’s live coverage on Instagram of it now being intercepted

Aren't they blocking a few things? I can't say I blame them after what happened on 7/10. Before that, I never really got the tight security around Israel. Now I do.

Gaza is either occupied or its not. Make your mind up.

Did you miss the word TEMPORARY!!! They’ve been at it for years, decades even! Also they cannot block aid - what are they doing but blocking aid. It is completely illegal buy the Israeli government think they have a divine right to do what they want and take what they want.

A country can occupy enemy "waters" (meaning maritime territory under enemy control) during a war if it establishes effective control, but this occupation is temporary and does not grant sovereignty, and is governed by rules protecting civilian populations and public property. This occupation is regulated by the law of occupation, as defined by the Hague Regulations and Geneva Conventions, which requires the occupying power to maintain public order and respect existing laws, while also being prohibited from deporting its own population into the territory.

Easily googleable.

Give it an old google “In 2015 the State of Palestine became a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Under UNCLOS, coastal states like Palestine can claim sovereign rights over waters extending up to 12 nautical miles from their coast (the territorial sea) and resource rights over an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that can extend up to 200 nautical miles.

Following its accession, Palestine filed declarations with the UN defining its maritime zones off the Gaza coast.”

So it is in fact Palestinian water - Israel are breaching international law and stealing what does not belong to them, as per usual.

Also a cambridge article on it:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/leiden-journal-of-international-law/article/gaza-marine-the-facts-and-the-law/C029A409DC49A37CA47753C48AED5252

I agree that the best option here is to just let them arrive in Gaza.

But there are a few practical issues:
There is only one small port in Gaza city which has been heavily damaged and in no way could take 50 vessels of the flotilla. So where exactly are they proposing to land?
If they even do land then how are they going to be able to refuel/ re provision etc in order to leave again?
Having 500 westerners turn up in Gaza is frankly too good an opportunity for Hamas to pass up by detaining them and using them as a bargaining chip / human shields to try and extract better terms on the current peace proposal.

So the best option for Israel is to let them go to Gaza and the best option for Hamas is to detain (maybe saying something like it's for the own safety because of the Israelis etc).

I am pretty sure thats not what the Flotilla want!!

Would be good if Israel did nothing and then there would be no show for the tictok cameras, and no online martyrdom. Fingers crossed.

There is no such thing as Palestinian waters

Hi there, just a quick correction since you seem a bit confused - the boats are in international waters and will then be going into Palestinian waters - they are not travelling to Israel so Israel can just leave them exercise their legal rights to sail the seas.

Yes I think they should at least pause their journey to see if Hamas agrees to the deal and the war ends.

No surprise though that they have said in a statement that they will continue to sail regardless of this extremely sensitive point in time.

Its extraordinarily provocative for them to continue at this delicate moment. If the deal succeeds the conditions for aid distribution immediately improve, which is supposedly what they want.

Italy PM tells Gaza aid flotilla to stop or risk 'preventing peace'

More than 40 boats sailing in the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) have been accompanied by an Italian naval frigate, which Italian officials said would stop once the flotilla was 150 nautical miles (278km) from Gaza's shoreline.

Shortly after reaching that point on Wednesday, GSF said it was on "high alert" and that drone activity was "increasing" above the flotilla.

Meloni said the US proposal had sparked "hope" of ending the Israel-Hamas war, adding it was "a fragile balance, which many would be happy to destroy".

"I fear that the flotilla's attempt to break the Israeli naval blockade could serve as a pretext to do so," Meloni said.

Italian officials have urged the flotilla to accept a compromise and drop the aid in Cyprus to avoid a confrontation with Israel.

"Any other choice risks becoming a pretext for preventing peace, fuelling conflict and therefore affecting above all the people of Gaza," Meloni said.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyr2lwg1rjo

I don’t know, will also be interested in how Israel decide to deal with them this time.

Am I the only one super interested as to what Israel are going to do about this Flotilla?

Its tricky isnt it. Israel dont really want to start killing Europeans, but the boats are in their waters and have been warned. Wouldnt it be interesting if they left them to reach Gaza and then realise there are no ports, and watch them bob about debating what to do? I think that if they actually swim over to land, the desperate Palestinians might go grab their boats and sail off. Or they could be kidnapped by Hamas? Or arrested by IDF? Or what exactly, any ideas?

The murder and human rights abuses in other countries does not make Israeli war crimes less heinous or less of a crime. You can’t use the excuse that your genocide is fine because others are also committing genocide. I have campaigned on multiple issues I don’t need to give the run down to you but I am pretty appalled by all human rights abuses. You can justify war crimes all you like but at the end of the day murder is murder and those that support it are complicit.

Really sad to say it, but I think you are right. Some conflicts, involving other people generate virtually no interest.

Not so much fixating and more a case of correcting fake news by the narcissistic self publicity obsessed futile.

I could equally argue that whilst you are "fixating" on Gaza, there are actual real concentration camps of Uighurs going on in China and actual real genocide and slave trade going on in Sudan.

Maybe when Chinese concentration camps or genocide in Sudan starts "trending" more than Gaza you might show an interest.

Honestly you are fixating so much on whether it was a bomb or not and having your giggles but you know what were definitely bombs, the ones that hit Gaza flattening 80% of it and killing 60k people. Only sociopaths would be amused by this. If Israel used a flare or a bomb to scare the humanitarians it doesn’t change facts that they are murdering the Palestinian population.

Sorry for misunderstanding- I was quoting you to reinforce your point that it wasn't "bombs".

I agree with you it isn't bombs so not sure why you have quoted me.