In May, Israeli naval forces boarded the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters on the Mediterranean and detained more than 400 activists attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza. Israel described it as a security operation conducted in accordance with international law. The New York Times published its investigation on Monday, having interviewed 24 of the people detained. What they described was not a security operation.
Twenty-two of the 24 said they were subjected to physical assault while in Israeli custody. The 23rd said she witnessed the violence. The 24th, a doctor, said she had treated the injuries it produced. The injuries are documented. Six of the 24 brought medical records. Those records show fractured ribs, a fractured vertebra, a broken coccyx, a firearm wound and a collapsed lung. These are not the injuries of a routine detention at sea. They are the injuries of sustained physical assault conducted after the ship was boarded.
What happened before that is also documented. Four of the activists said Israeli forces shot them with rubber bullets and beanbag rounds while they were still on the ship — before they had been transferred to Israeli custody at all. Three said they were Tasered while being beaten inside shipping containers after boarding. Seven were hospitalised after Israel released them. Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible offences including kidnapping and sexual assault. Germany described some of the accusations as serious. Israel has said any allegations of mistreatment would be investigated. It has brought no charges against the detained activists. Most were deported.
The flotilla was in international waters when it was boarded. This is not in dispute. The 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation — which Israel has ratified — prohibits violent acts against ships at sea. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea protects freedom of navigation and the right of civilian vessels to travel through international waters. The activists on the Global Sumud Flotilla were exercising those rights in international waters on the Mediterranean when they were boarded at gunpoint, detained, transferred to shipping containers and shot with rubber bullets and beanbag rounds. The International Court of Justice has issued binding provisional measures finding it plausible that genocidal acts are being committed in Gaza. The blockade the flotilla was attempting to breach is part of the context the ICJ is examining.
The accountability infrastructure is worth naming. Medical records documenting a fractured vertebra and a collapsed lung aboard a ship in international waters are precisely the kind of documented evidence that international legal mechanisms exist to examine. The ICC — whose jurisdiction covers grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, including wilful killing and torture of protected persons — is the institution most directly relevant to the documented injuries. The ICC is, as DiploPolis reported last week in 'A Home on Qeshm. No Court to Say So,' being dismantled specifically to prevent accountability for actions committed by Israel and by the United States in this conflict. Trump confirmed that purpose on camera. Rubio said it would be taken apart brick by brick. The medical records exist. The court that would examine them is being disassembled.
Israel has previously described its maritime operations as lawful and proportionate measures to prevent weapons from reaching Gaza. The flotilla was carrying humanitarian supplies. The 24 activists the Times interviewed were not armed. The doctor among them was treating the injured. The 22 who said they were assaulted had been attempting to bring aid to a blockaded territory in which, as the World Food Programme has confirmed, acute food insecurity is accelerating.
The broken coccyx is on the medical record. The fractured vertebra is on the medical record. The collapsed lung is on the medical record. The ship was in international waters. The court that would ask the next question is being taken apart to prevent the answer.
Twenty-two of twenty-four said they were assaulted. The 23rd witnessed it. The 24th treated it. Israel called it a security operation. The medical records call it something else.
