On its last attempt to reach Gaza (30th December), the sixth expedition of the Free Gaza movement which sailed about the SS Dignity from the Cypriot Port of Laranca, was intercepted, interdicted, rammed and damaged by Israeli naval vessels. The Free Gaza movement says this happened in international waters.
Since then, Israel has formally announced a naval blockade of Gaza’s territorial waters (as delimited by the Oslo Accords) — see our previous post, here.
This proclamation which provides legal justification for a number of measures, including interception and interdiction. It has not been challenged.
Haaretz journalist Yaakov Katz — who has good sources in Israel’s Ministry of Defense, was a guest on board an Israeli naval vessel last week, and he reported some interesting details on Israel’s naval operations against Gaza, quoting a Maj. Tzur as saying: “We are guarding Israel’s coastal borderline, including Gaza fishing areas, in order to prevent a terrorist infiltration into Israel”. (As shown in our previous post, the name given in the Oslo Accords map of Gaza’s Territorial waters first called the zone a “Fishing Zone”. This term was later changed (after the announcement of the discovery of potentially exploitable undersea gas deposits) to an “Economic Activity Zone”.
Katz also reported in his Haaretz story that “The navy is tasked, among other things, with imposing the sea blockade on the Strip, preventing weapons smuggling to Gaza via the Mediterranean and thwarting terror attacks. The navy has a significant force and maintains a constant presence near the Gaza coast. Several other Israeli naval vessels sail in the area, including Sa’ar 4.5s, hunting Hamas terror cells and backing up ground operations … Palestinian police boats have also been hit during naval operations, and according to the officer, Hamas naval forces have been dealt a severe blow. The officer said that there had been attempts to fire at Israeli naval ships, mostly with light arms and anti-tank missiles … 10 Hamas terror operatives were killed by naval forces … ‘All the time, there are attempts to approach us…they are dying to hurt us’, said the officer. ‘There is now a naval blockade so anyone who is in the sea is considered suspicious’.” This report can be read in full here.
Undaunted, the Free Gaza movement has just announced that they intend to set sail on a 7th expedition from Cyprus to Gaza at noon on Monday, with expected arrival on Tuesday. Today’s announcement said that “Israel has been notified that we are coming. A copy of the notification to the Israeli Authorities is attached [see below].
They will have to go in a new boat — the Spirit of Humanity, which sails under a Greek flag — as the Dignity (which was registered in Gibralter and sailed under a British flag) is still under repair in a Lebanese port.
Last Wednesday, the Free Gaza movement announced that it was “sending another emergency boat to Gaza. We will announce our exact departure date, time and route in the next few days. We will travel from Cypriot waters, into international waters, then directly into Gaza territorial waters, never nearing Israeli waters”.
That first announcement, the movement said, “put Israel on notice”.
It also said that “The United Nations has failed to protect the Palestinian civilian population from Israel’s massive violations of international humanitarian law … [But] We are not deterred by the violence of the Israeli military and intend to sail to Gaza again and again … We are willing to put our bodies on the line to stop Israel’s unlawful massacres of the Palestinian people (we have received death threats warning us not to repeat our attempt) and bring the attention of the world to the war crimes happening in Gaza against 1.5 million Palestinians”.
In an official notification of their intent to enter Gaza’s territorial waters sent to the Israeli Navy and to the Israeli Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, the Free Gaza movement wrote that “We will be carrying urgently needed medical supplies in sealed boxes, cleared by customs at the Larnaca International Airport and the Port of Larnaca … Our boat and cargo will also have received security clearance from the Port Authorities in Cyprus before we depart. As it will be confirmed that neither we, the cargo, any of the boat´s contents, nor the boat itself constitute any threat to the security of Israel or its armed forces, we do not expect any interference with our voyage by Israel´s authorities”.
Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council met in emergency session on Friday to consider the current Israeli attacks on Gaza. Professor Richard Falk, the HR Council’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian territory, told the emergency session that “about 75% of the population lacks access to sanitary water and has no electric power. Such conditions are superimposed on the circumstances of Gazans resulting from the prolonged blockade that had deteriorated the physical and mental health, and the nutritional status, of the population of Gaza as a whole, leaving some 45% of children suffering from acute anemia. Interference in the supply of medicines and health equipment, and border closures, had made it impossible for many Gazans to receive or continue treatment for life-threatening conditions. It was also reliably concluded that up to 80% of Gaza was living under the poverty line, that unemployment totals approached 75%, and that the health system was near collapse from the effects of the blockade. This set of conditions certainly led impartial international observers and civil servants to an uncontested conclusion that the population of Gaza was already experiencing a humanitarian crisis of grave magnitude prior to 27 December … This blockade in effect for a period of 18 months was unlawful, a massive form of collective punishment, and as such in violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and also a violation of Article 55, which requires that the occupying power ensure that the civilian population has sufficient food and that its health needs are addressed. Such blockade does not alter the unjustifiable character of the rocket attacks, but it does suggest two important conclusions from a legal perspective: first, that the scale of civilian harm resulting from Israeli unlawful conduct was far greater than that of Palestinian unlawful conduct; secondly, that any effort to produce a sustainable ceasefire should ensure that Israel as well as Hamas respect IHL, which most concretely means that interferences with the access of goods for the maintenance of normal civilian life must end, and cannot be reestablished as a retaliatory measure if some sort of rocket attack occurs in the future. Similarly, if Israel should impose such constraints in the future, it would not provide any legal cover for resumed rocket attacks or other forms of Palestinian violence directed at Israeli civilians. There are some difficulties in attributing responsibility for all rocket attacks to Hamas. There are independent militias operating in Gaza, and even prior to Hamas, governing authorities were unable to prevent all rocket firings despite their best efforts to do so”.
Falk added that “It is also relevant that Hamas repeatedly offered to extend the ceasefire, even up to ten years, provided that Israel would lift the blockade. These diplomatic possibilities were, as far as can be assessed, not explored by Israel, although admittedly complicated by the contested legal status of Hamas as the de facto representative of the Gazan population. This has legal relevance, as a cardinal principle of the UN Charter is to make recourse to force a matter of last resort, making it obligatory for Israel to rely in good faith on nonviolent means to end rocket attacks”.
And, Falk told the HR Council emergency session on Gaza that: “It is also important under international law to determine the extent to which the reliance on force is proportionate to the provocation and necessary for safeguarding security. Here, too, the Israeli arguments seem unpersuasive. As mentioned above, the rocket attacks, although unlawful and potentially dangerous, had caused little damage, and no loss of life. To mount a major military campaign against an essentially defenseless society already gravely weakened by the blockade accentuates the disproportion of reliance on modern weaponry in combat situations where military dominance was largely uncontested … The one-sidedness of casualty figures is one measure of disproportion. Another is the scale of devastation and the magnitude of the attacks. It is obvious that the destruction of police facilities, as well as many public buildings, in crowded urban settings represents an excessive use of force even if Israeli allegations are accepted at face value. As discrediting as is the reliance on disproportionate force, is the lack of connection between the alleged threat associated with Gaza rockets and the targets of the Israeli attacks, giving added weight to the claims that the Israeli use of force is a form of ‘aggression’ prohibited by international law, and certainly excessive in relation to criteria of ‘proportionality’ and ‘necessity’. ”
Falk also noted that “In many contemporary situations of warfare large number of civilians seek to escape from harm by moving away from immediate danger, becoming ‘internally displaced persons’ or ‘refugees.’ But Israel through its rigid control of exit, directly and indirectly, has denied the civilian population of Gaza the option of becoming ‘refugees,’ never an option of choice, but reflective of desperation. Its denial tends to lend credibility that the population of Gaza is essentially imprisoned by Israeli occupation policy. From the perspective of IHL (International Humanitarian Law), this foreclosure of a refugee option for Gazans is a serious aggravation of the dangers posed for a civilian population, and underscores the gravity of the humanitarian crisis that has existed in Gaza since 27 December …”
Official Notification of Intent to Enter
January 11, 2009
To: The Israeli Ministry of Defense, Fax: 972-3-697-6717
To: The Israeli Navy
To: The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fax 972-2-5303367
From: The Free Gaza Movement
This letter serves as a formal notification to you as the Occupying Power and belligerent force in the Gaza Strip that on Monday, January 12 we are navigating the motor vessel, Spirit of Humanity, from the Port of Larnaca to the port of Gaza City. Our vessel will be flying the Greek flag, and, as such, falls under the jurisdiction Greece.
We will be sailing from Cypriot waters into international waters, then directly into the territorial waters of the Gaza Strip without entering or nearing Israeli territorial waters. We expect to arrive at the Gaza Port on Tuesday, January 13, 2009.
We will be carrying urgently needed medical supplies in sealed boxes, cleared by customs at the Larnaca International Airport and the Port of Larnaca. There will be a total of 30 passengers and crew on board, among them members of various European Parliaments and several physicians. Our boat and cargo will also have received security clearance from the Port Authorities in Cyprus before we depart.
As it will be confirmed that neither we, the cargo, any of the boat’s contents, nor the boat itself constitute any threat to the security of Israel or its armed forces, we do not expect any interference with our voyage by Israel’s authorities.
On Tuesday, December 30, an Israeli Navy vessel violently, and without warning, attacked our motor vessel Dignity, disabling the vessel and endangering the lives of the 16 civilians on board. This notice
serves as clear notification to you of our approach. Any attack on the motor vessel, Spirit of Humanity, will be premeditated and any harm inflicted on the 30 civilians on board will be considered the result
of a deliberate attack on unarmed civilians”.
This announcement can be seen on the Free Gaza website, here.