UN experts demand safe passage from Israel for Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla vessel Madleen

Humanitarian group asks supporters to add their letter to well over 80,000 already sent

United Nations human rights experts have formally called for Israel to ensure safe passage for the Madleen, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla (GFF) sailing vessel carrying vital aid and international volunteers to break Israel’s starvation blockade of Gaza and to draw attention to Israel’s genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated on the Palestinian people.
GFF is asking for supporters to add their voice and ‘turn international law into action’ by using their page to send a letter to the Israeli government, UN officials, and diplomatic missions demanding that Israel abide by international law and refrain from attacking, sabotaging or otherwise interfering with the Madleen and her mission. At the time of writing, almost 85,000 people have already done so and the number is increasing rapidly.

The Madleen’s predecessor ship, the Conscience, was badly damaged by Israeli bombs in a drone attack in international waters off the coast of Malta last month, putting the lives of the crew in danger and wounding several.

In a public statement yesterday published by the United Nations office for human rights (OHCHR), the UN humanitarian experts expressed serious concern for the safety of participants in the Freedom Flotilla, given Israel’s repeated violent attacks on human rights defenders and UN and civilian humanitarian missions, and pointed to Israel’s 17-year long full blockade on Gaza for 17 years, which escalated on 2 March into a “total and absolute” starvation siege on 2 March, preventing aid from entering the Strip for over 80 days and the charade now of mercenary-run ‘aid’ in tiny camps designed to ethnically cleanse the rest of Gaza. The UN OHCHR page reads:

UN experts today called for safe passage for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s ship carrying essential medical aid, food, and baby supplies to Gaza which departed from Italy on 1 June 2025.

“Aid is desperately needed for the people of Gaza to forestall annihilation, and this initiative is a symbolic and powerful effort to deliver it. Israel should remember that the world is watching closely and refrain from any act of hostility against the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and its passengers,” the experts said.

“The people of Gaza have the right to receive aid through their own territorial waters even under occupation, and the Coalition ship has the right to free passage in international waters to reach the people of Gaza,” they said. “Israel must not interfere with its freedom of navigation, long recognised under international law.”

They expressed serious concern for the safety of participants in the Freedom Flotilla, given Israel’s repeated violent attacks on human rights defenders and UN and civilian humanitarian missions. The Coalition sent a similar ship in early May, which was bombed by a drone off the coast of Malta.

“Israel has imposed a full blockade on Gaza for 17 years. This blockade has been total and absolute since 2 March 2025, preventing aid from entering the Strip for over 80 days, only recently allowing a trickle of aid to enter,” the experts said.

“As the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s ship approaches Palestinian territorial waters off Gaza, Israel must adhere to international law and comply with orders from the International Court of Justice to ensure unimpeded access for humanitarian aid,” they said.

In March 2024, the International Court of Justice issued provisional measures recognising that famine and starvation were rampant in Gaza, creating a risk of genocide. In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu for the war crime of starvation. “Yet on 1 March 2025, he announced that the entry of all goods and supplies to the Gaza Strip would be halted, flagrantly defying international law,” the experts said.

“Over six hundred days into Israel’s starvation campaign and genocidal violence against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the situation is at its most horrific.”

The experts stressed that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, backed by Israel and the US, is using aid as a weapon of war to displace, humiliate and corral civilians. “These practices violate international legal principles of dignity, humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality,” they said, noting that child acute malnutrition had increased by more than 80% in March 2025.

“The accumulation of trucks carrying humanitarian aid at the Rafah crossing while civilians starve and die is not a failure of coordination — it is the deliberate and willful weaponisation of humanitarian aid, and the international community seems to be complicit,” the experts said.

“Member States have a legal obligation and a moral imperative to stop starvation and genocide in Gaza.”

The experts urged the UN General Assembly to authorise the deployment of peacekeepers to accompany humanitarian aid trucks under the ‘Uniting for Peace’ provision of the UN Charter.

Michael Fakhri, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food
Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967
Tlaleng Mofokeng, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education
Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
Paula Gaviria, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons
Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
George Katrougalos, Independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order;
Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences

Israel’s cheerleaders, including Republican South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who has previously threatened to invade the Internationl Criminal Court for issuing war crimes arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant and has called for Gaza to be treated like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have called on Israel to sink the vessel or expressed their hope that it does so.

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