The U.S. feminist anti-war action organization CODEPINK has strongly condemned the arrest of 12 humanitarian activists from seven countries who were traveling aboard the Freedom Flotilla and were boarded by the Israeli Navy before arriving in Gaza.
The volunteers were detained while attempting to break the Israeli blockade with food and essential supplies intended for the Gazan population, amid warnings shared by international organizations about the famine prevailing throughout the territory, and direct attacks against the population who came to fake aid distribution points set up by Israel.
“Any nation that does not intervene to demand the immediate entry of food into Gaza must be considered complicit in this humanitarian disaster,” CODEPINK stated in a statement.
The peace advocacy organization denounced that, while world governments idly watch the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel continues its siege, worsening the situation of two million Palestinians.
CODEPINK demands the immediate release of the activists and an end to the siege on the Gaza Strip. They recall that this is not the first time Israel has attacked aid workers. In May 2025, an Israeli military drone attacked a Freedom Flotilla ship in international waters. Fifteen years earlier, Israel had already attacked another flotilla, killing ten people, wounding 50, and detaining more than 650 unarmed civilians.
“Israel has demonstrated once again that it considers any attempt to keep Palestinians alive a crime, punishing it with arrest or even death,” CODEPINK stated.
The organization also lamented that countries like the United States continue to send weapons and provide political support to Israel, while the latter detains and kills American citizens. They described it as an “abomination” that the use of starvation as a weapon of war and the destruction of cities do not represent a red line for Israel’s allies.
“At this stage of genocide, even those trying to bring food to starving families are condemned,” CODEPINK denounced, urging the international community to “pay attention” to the global march to Gaza, scheduled for later this week from Cairo, Egypt.
CODEPINK warns that the treatment of the Freedom Flotilla activists poses a threat to the safety of the march participants. “If the world does not condemn these arrests, it will be giving Israel a green light to harass, detain, and attack thousands of people trying to reach the Rafah border.”
The organization urges U.S. citizens to contact Israeli consulates and demand the release of the detained aid workers, as well as to join protests in support of Gaza, demanding the lifting of the siege and an end to the Israeli offensive against the Palestinians.
