Global Sumud Flotilla claims Israeli cyber-attack, dangerous manoeuvres
The Global Sumud Flotilla held an emergency media briefing on Wednesday after two of their boats were allegedly the target of an Israeli cyber-attack and had to use evasive manoeuvres to prevent a collision with the Israeli naval ship.
Thiago Avila, a member of the GSF steering committee, said the Alma and Sirius were targeted by 'dangerous and intimidatory manoeuvres'.
"This was an intimidatory attack, but also that had elements of a cyber-attack of electronic warfare against our boats, the Alma and the Sirius," said Avila.
"This attack started around 5 am Gaza time, and it had the presence of more than one military vessel in the nearby region; with suspicious behaviour coming close to our flotilla, then this first military vessel appeared.
"Then a second military vessel appeared right at the bow of the Alam, almost crashed into our boat. So, we had to do an evasive manoeuvre not to crash the boat, and it started circling our boat and doing not only the very attack, but also the electronic and cyber warfare against our boat. [They] immediately disabled all of our navigation devices, all of our communication devices, disabled the camera, disabled the internet, disabled the VHF, the radio channel, disabled a few other electronic devices, and was circling our boat in a very intimidatory way."
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said she admired the delegates on the flotilla for their ability to stay calm and peaceful and to endure “intimidations and attacks”.
"Gaza is unlawfully occupied territory, which has been for 17 years under blockade," said Albanese.
"We have to recall that the flotilla has a long tradition now. They started many, many years ago and it has always been made of decent human being trying to break the blockade, which was unlawful because it does deliberately, it's a siege that the government, that the State of Israel has imposed on two million people trapped in the ghetto that was created in 1948 and has become, it has always been separated from the rest.
"As of 2007, Israel has restricted food, fuel, medical supplies, shelter, and other forms of humanitarian assistance. So the situation was already dramatic and to be broken two years before now. And now the form of collective punishment that Israel has imposed on Gaza has clearly aggravated because in the past two years, Israel has conducted itself in ways that have led it to be accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity."
She said the international community has an obligation to protect the people of Gaza, including breaking the blockade.
"In the face of all this, what the Global Samud Flotilla is doing is absolutely legal, is grassroots humanitarianism, and Israel is obliged to immediately cease and desist from all threats of arms against the Global Samud Flotilla and ensure that it carries out its mission to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza without obstruction.”
Albanese said there is no illusion that the humanitarian aid that the GSF is transporting is a drop in the ocean, but what the flotilla is doing is carrying the courage to enforce international law.
Interception of the flotilla
"If the flotilla were to be intercepted, this would be not just a collective punishment, an act of intimidation, a reprisal against humanitarian defenders, which is what Israel is already doing. It would be yet another violation of international law, the law of the sea, which prohibits interception.”
She says Israel has no legitimate authority to intercept a ship in the sea off of Gaza, because these are Palestinian waters.
"This is not an area where Israel has sovereignty, and therefore it might constitute an aggression against the states whose flags have been used to accompany the flotilla. There could be also an unlawful act against the members of the flotilla, the delegates, if they were to be abducted and taken to Israel.
"This is global consciousness, but we need to remember that the flotilla is not an end in itself. The flotilla is a means to an end, to the end of the blockade, the end of the genocide, the end of the apartheid, which is enormous. So, this is why the consciousness that has been awakened by the flotilla must continue until the genocide is over, until there is a full withdrawal of Israel from the occupied Palestinian territory.”
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