16/06/2025
All Madleen Volunteers Out of Prison and Headed Home After Unlawful Detention by Israel
Monday June 16, 2025.
For immediate release
Occupied Palestine â The Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms that all the international human rights defenders and journalists that were aboard the civilian aid ship Madleen are now en route home. The twelve were forcibly abducted and detained by Israeli forces while attempting to break Israelâs illegal and inhumane siege of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to its besieged population.
The last three detained Freedom Flotilla volunteers, Marco van Rennes, Pascal Maurieras, and Yanis Mhamdi, were released from Israeli detention this morning and have begun their return to their home countries via the Jordanian border. Their respective embassies will facilitate their return home from Jordan. We are grateful to Adalah - The Legal Center For Arab Minority Rights In Israel, for their steadfast and professional representation of these detainees, and we call on our supporters everywhere to join us in donating to support their important work (https://donate.adalah.org/).
This mission took place as Palestinians in Gaza face the most devastating campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide in recent history. Israelâs nearly two-decade-long blockade of Gaza has been repeatedly found to violate international law, including in the 2009 United Nations Fact-Finding Mission Report and numerous legal analyses since. In 2024, the International Court of Justice found it plausible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and issued binding provisional measures to prevent such acts. Despite this, Israel's deadly blockade continues with full backing from the U.S., EU, and other complicit governments.
The Madleen mission is part of a 17-year-long civil society effort to confront, challenge, and break Israelâs illegal blockade on Gaza. Based on precedent, we knew the risksâincluding attack, injury, and even deathâwere high. But we believe the cost of inaction is greater. Our goal is to break the siegeânot symbolically, but materially and politicallyâwhich requires mobilizing not just civil society, but governments as well. In that sense, this mission has succeeded in reigniting global awareness, hope, and imagination in the power of people-to-people solidarity and direct action. Weâre not stoppingâand we invite the world to join us.
Our mission sought to break through media fatigue and remind the world: Gaza remains under illegal blockade. International silence is not neutralityâit is complicity. Palestinians have the right to live with dignity, freedom, and justice, and to receive aidâeverything they needâwithout the control of their illegal Occupying Power.
We welcome the peopleâs solidarity with our mission, with our volunteers, and above all, with the starved and besieged Palestinian people of Gaza. We ask you to keep mobilizing, watch for announcements of our next action against the blockade, and let your solidarity sail.
We will continue sailing until the blockade is broken, the genocide ends, and Palestine is freeâfrom the river to the sea.