Breaking: final Madleen flotilla hostages released and heading home

Delayed release of three remaining hostages captured in Israeli piracy attack finally goes through

Marco van Rennes (NL), Pascal Maurieras and Yanis Mhamdi (both French) have finally been released from Israeli prisons and are heading home via Jordan. The three were among twelve volunteer crew of the humanitarian flotilla vessel Madleen, which was rammed and seized by Israel last week as it tried to take medicines and baby formula to Palestinians starved by Israel’s months-long, illegal blockade of Gaza.

Other crew members were released last week and the three were a day away from deportation when Israel attacked Iran and then cancelled flights because of Iran’s retaliation All the hostage crew were abused by their captors. A statement from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) reads:

Occupied Palestine — The Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms that all the international human rights defenders and journalists that were aboard the civilian aid ship Madleen are now en route home. The twelve were forcibly abducted and detained by Israeli forces while attempting to break Israel’s illegal and inhumane siege of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to its besieged population.

The last three detained Freedom Flotilla volunteers, Marco van Rennes, Pascal Maurieras, and Yanis Mhamdi, were released from Israeli detention this morning and have begun their return to their home countries via the Jordanian border. Their respective embassies will facilitate their return home from Jordan. We are grateful to Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, for their steadfast and professional representation of these detainees, and we call on our supporters everywhere to join us in donating to support their important work (https://donate.adalah.org/).

This mission took place as Palestinians in Gaza face the most devastating campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide in recent history. Israel’s nearly two-decade-long blockade of Gaza has been repeatedly found to violate international law, including in the 2009 United Nations Fact-Finding Mission Report and numerous legal analyses since. In 2024, the International Court of Justice found it plausible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and issued binding provisional measures to prevent such acts. Despite this, Israel’s deadly blockade continues with full backing from the U.S., EU, and other complicit governments.

The Madleen mission is part of a 17-year-long civil society effort to confront, challenge, and break Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza. Based on precedent, we knew the risks—including attack, injury, and even death—were high. But we believe the cost of inaction is greater. Our goal is to break the siege—not symbolically, but materially and politically—which requires mobilizing not just civil society, but governments as well. In that sense, this mission has succeeded in reigniting global awareness, hope, and imagination in the power of people-to-people solidarity and direct action. We’re not stopping—and we invite the world to join us.
Our mission sought to break through media fatigue and remind the world: Gaza remains under illegal blockade. International silence is not neutrality—it is complicity. Palestinians have the right to live with dignity, freedom, and justice, and to receive aid—everything they need—without the control of their illegal Occupying Power.

We welcome the people’s solidarity with our mission, with our volunteers, and above all, with the starved and besieged Palestinian people of Gaza. We ask you to keep mobilizing, watch for announcements of our next action against the blockade, and let your solidarity sail.
We will continue sailing until the blockade is broken, the genocide ends, and Palestine is free—from the river to the sea.

Rima Hassan, the French MPE also taken hostage in Israel’s piracy, said last week on her return that the FFC is already preparing its next ship to sail to Gaza, while Malaysia is reported to be sending a thousand vessels to break the siege.

Israel continues to starve Gaza and to use mercenary-run ‘aid stations’ daily to entice starving Palestinian civilians into the open where they can be shot. The occupation has also completely cut off the West Bank and has installed a massive military presence.

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