The activists and journalists on board the ship include US, Moroccan, Tunisian, Italian and UK nationals [Getty/file photo]
Activists on board the Gaza-bound Handala ship abducted by Israel at sea have called on their governments to secure their release in video messages made public following the incident late on Saturday.
In the clips shared on social media platforms, the activists shared various pleas urging government action on their ordeal, as well as an end to Israel’s onslaught and starvation campaign in the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 59,700.
Huwaida Arraf, one of the US activists on board the ship said: “If you are seeing this video, it means we have been illegally intercepted at sea and abducted by Israel occupation forces, or by forces complicit in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.”
“I call on my friends, family and everyone to put pressure on the American government to demand my release and the release of everyone on board the Handala as soon as possible, and to end their participation in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” she added in her message.
Moroccan journalist and activist Mohamed El Bakkali also shared a similar message, urging Rabat to do all it can to ensure their release, and called on human rights and press freedom organisations to intervene.
Other activists on board the boat, including French-Swedish politician Emma Fourreau, Tunisian civil rights activist Hatem Aouini and others have also made similar calls.
Just before midnight local time on Saturday, Israeli forces illegally intercepted the Handala ship, in an incident shown via a video livestream from the boat. An online tracker showed the ship in international waters west of Gaza, around 40 nautical miles from the enclave.
NGOs and other activists are also calling for the Handala crew’s immediate release, who were detained late on Saturday after Israeli naval forces illegally stormed their Gaza-bound vessel, in a move condemned globally.
In the footage, the activists were seen holding their hands up and humming to the Italian anti-fascist song Bella Ciao. Israeli forces soon took down their cameras, cutting communication with the outside world.
Groups like Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, urged Israeli authorities earlier on Sunday to provide information on the hereabouts and conditions the 21 activists on board the vessel are held in.
Lawyers from the Israel-based non-profit had previously represented activists from the Madleen vessel, another Gaza Freedom Flotilla-linked boat which also set sail to Gaza in June, carrying symbolic aid.
Mosab Abu Toha, the Palestinian Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and educator from Gaza, also called for their release.
“Let them go do what governments failed to do on purpose,” he said, in reference to the lack of global action on the military campaign, siege and starvation crisis ongoing in the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla coalition also condemned the incident, stressing the vessel never entered Israeli waters or intended to do so, as it was headed towards Gaza.
“Activists have a legitimate right to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza’s starving civilians. Israel has no legal jurisdiction or authority over the international waters in which the vessel was sailing,” it said.
On Sunday, Israeli forces brought the activist boat into the port of Ashdod, according to AFP.
Diplomatic representatives and lawyers from the Adalah organisation said via a press release that they were currently awaiting access to the crew. However, no access has yet been granted.
A total of 21 activists were on board Handala, the second vessel of its kind in recent months to attempt to break Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip, which has plunged the enclave into famine, killing scores of Palestinians every day.
In June, Israel detained and deported several activists on board the Madleen vessel, including French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
