On Monday, the Israeli Prosecutor’s Office filed a petition in a Haifa court seeking permission to confiscate 50 boats used by Freedom Platoon activists to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, alleging that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) would have financed and supported these actions.
The petition therefore claims that a “significant number of vessels” are owned by a company that is said to be a front company for a Palestinian group identified as Neptune Cyber, which Israel accuses of operating under the Hamas-linked non-governmental organization Palestine Council of Overseas Palestinians (PCPA), as reported by the Times of Israel newspaper.
The prosecutor’s office has not yet identified the owners of the vessels, but claims that Israel has the authority to seize them under international law, since all of them were seized by the navy in international waters in the Mediterranean.
In this sense, he argues, the effort was “unprecedented in scale and impact, with coordinated planning and focused direction.” “They presented a challenge to the navy and sought to break the naval blockade (imposed on the Strip in 2007 and reinforced following the October 7, 2023 attack),” the Israeli prosecutor’s office concluded.
Israeli authorities have detained hundreds of activists aboard 50 boats used in both efforts that attempted to reach the Gaza Strip’s shores in early October to deliver humanitarian aid amid Israeli military attacks on the enclave.
Numerous activists, including Spanish nationals, subsequently reported various abuses during their time in Israeli security forces’ custody prior to deportation.
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