Foreign Ministry: The attack on the Freedom Fleet is an attack on international law

SadaNews - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine expresses its strong condemnation of the Israeli attack and aggression against the global Freedom Fleet, considering it a moral and legal violation of international law and international norms, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and other humanitarian principles and human rights, especially for those on board this fleet.

The Foreign Ministry expresses its grave concern for the safety and security of more than 470 participants, holding Israel, the occupying power, responsible for their safety and security during their humanitarian duty to deliver aid to our besieged and deliberately starved Palestinian people, who are subjected to genocide.

The Foreign Ministry of the State of Palestine emphasizes that the global Freedom Fleet is a peaceful civil initiative aimed at breaking the inhumane and illegal Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip and putting an end to the Israeli policies of starvation and genocide, in accordance with international law.

It reaffirms that Israel, which the International Court of Justice has declared as illegally occupying Palestine, has no authority or sovereignty over the Palestinian territorial waters extending from the Gaza Strip and over international waters. The global Freedom Fleet enjoys the right of free passage in international waters, and Israel, the illegal occupying power, must refrain from interfering with this internationally recognized freedom of navigation.

The State of Palestine also affirms that the global Freedom Fleet is allowed to pass through the Palestinian territorial waters to deliver humanitarian aid.

The State of Palestine praises the participants for their courage and determination to break the Israeli siege and end the genocide being perpetrated by Israel, calling on the international community and its institutions to provide protection for them and to activate accountability mechanisms against Israel.