RAMALLAH, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Israel's "piracy" against the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla represents "a compounded crime" and "a flagrant violation" of international law, Palestinian National Council Speaker Rawhi Fattouh said Tuesday.
It is also "a direct attack on the freedom of civilian navigation, as well as a violation of the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter," Fattouh said in a press statement.
It reveals Israel's "insistence on criminalizing humanitarian work and preventing the delivery of aid" to Gaza, he said.
Fattouh called for opening an international investigation into this move, ensuring the immediate release of all detainees, and providing legal protection for humanitarian aid ships.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli commando forces "stopped" ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla from reaching Gaza.
The flotilla also confirmed that Israel began on Monday morning to intercept its boats in international waters, about 250 nautical miles from Gaza's coast.
Activists and medical staff set sail with more than 50 vessels of the humanitarian flotilla from Türkiye's Marmaris coast on Thursday, in a third attempt to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza and deliver aid to Palestinians.
But Netanyahu called the flotilla a "malicious plan to break the isolation we have imposed on Hamas militants in Gaza."
More than 72,000 people have been killed and over 172,000 others injured in Gaza by Israeli fire since October 2023, according to Gaza-based health authorities. ■
