Israel enters Gaza flotilla carrying UvA student near Cyprus. Is that legal?
The flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, on which UvA student Jesse van Schaik was travelling, has been boarded by the Israeli military near Cyprus. But does this constitute a lawful blockade, or an illegal interception? “It is disputed whether this concerns an international or an internal conflict.”
UvA student Jesse van Schaik (21) was travelling with the Global Sumud Flotilla – a fleet en route to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid – but has now reportedly been removed from her vessel by the Israeli military, according to the flotilla’s Instagram account. According to the Global Sumud Flotilla, the ships were boarded on Monday near Cyprus. Earlier this month, part of the same flotilla was also intercepted by Israel off the coast of Crete, but whereas Van Schaik managed to avoid capture at the time, she now appears to have been detained by Israel.
Naval blockade
Although Israel has maintained a blockade since 2009 in which ships travelling towards Gaza are intercepted, such an operation in the middle of open waters inevitably raises questions. Does the country actually have the right to carry out actions like this in international waters, or was Van Schaik removed from the vessel by Israel on unlawful grounds?
“As the occupying power in Gaza, Israel may regulate access to the occupied territory,” says legal scholar and Professor of International Public Law and Sustainability André Nollkaemper, “but that does not automatically give Israel the right to intercept ships heading towards Gaza on the high seas.”
According to the professor, such a naval blockade may be lawfully imposed in the context of an international conflict, “but in this case it is disputed whether this concerns an international or an internal conflict. That is also because Israel (and countries such as the Netherlands) does not recognise Palestine as a state.”
Humanitarian aid
If the situation were to be regarded as an internal armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, such a blockade – and therefore also the interception on the high seas – would in any case be unlawful, Nollkaemper explains. “However, in an advisory opinion issued in 2024, the International Court of Justice implicitly assumes that the law governing international armed conflicts applies to this situation. If that is indeed the case, Israel may in principle impose a blockade.”
However, that does not settle the matter, the legal scholar continues. “Even if Israel does, in principle, have the right to impose a blockade, its enforcement can become unlawful if it conflicts with fundamental obligations towards the population in the occupied territory. Several UN reports have found that there is a policy of starvation with regard to Gaza, and there is good reason to argue that the blockade forms part of that policy. If that is the case, it undermines the legality of the blockade.”
In addition, the International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, Nollkaemper explains. “On these grounds, combined with the fact that the interception took place very far from Gaza and that the military necessity for protection is extremely weak, the conclusion must be that enforcing the blockade in order to prevent humanitarian aid, and therefore also boarding the vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla on the high seas, is unlawful.”
