AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

For the second time in less than two months, Israeli forces have raided a civilian aid ship bound for Gaza in international waters. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition was attempting to break the Israeli siege by sailing the Handala ship to Gaza with baby formula, diapers, food and medicine on board. On Saturday night, Israeli forces seized the aid and detained the ship’s crew of 21 civilians, including parliamentarians, human rights lawyers and journalists. Just before the raid, one of the flotilla organizers, Huwaida Arraf, spoke by phone with the Israeli forces.

HUWAIDA ARRAF: And we are sailing lawfully in international waters, where you have no jurisdiction. You have no lawful jurisdiction. You are starving civilians. Any blockade that starves civilians or has a disproportionate harmful effect on a civilian population is illegal, and therefore you have no authority to enforce an illegal blockade. And as such, you are not permitted to use any kind of force to enforce an illegal blockade. We demand that you stand down, that you not attack the civilian vessel that is carrying only humanitarian aid. Why are you afraid of baby formula and teddy bears that are destined for the children of Gaza? You spew your propaganda about Hamas. This vessel carries food and baby formula for children that your government is deliberately starving. Your blockade is deliberately starving children to death. You have no authority to enforce an illegal blockade. This is a war crime. You are responsible for the health, well-being and safety of all civilians aboard this vessel, and any attack on us is a violation of international law for which you will be held accountable by the international community.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Palestinian American human rights attorney Huwaida Arraf just before Israeli forces detained the Freedom Flotilla’s crew of 21 civilians. She’s just been released and joins us now from Yaffa.

We spoke to you on Friday when you were still sailing in international waters. Huwaida, can you take us through what happened on Saturday night?

HUWAIDA ARRAF: Yes. Thank you for having me, Amy.

So, on Saturday, we were getting reports from the Israeli media that Israel plans to give us the opportunity to turn around, which, of course, we wouldn’t do, because we intend to challenge and break this illegal blockade, and if we did not turn around, then it would forcefully seize our vessel. The thing is, they had not made any contact with us whatsoever. So, at a certain point, when we saw on our radar strange activity by a number of ships, which we suspected to be the Israeli Navy, I initiated, or tried to initiate, contact with them on the VHF radio that ships use to be in contact. I radioed them a number of times, and they did not respond.

After about an hour and another try to radio them, they did respond, and they spewed this kind of propaganda about we are headed towards a navally blockaded area, and Israel will use all — will do whatever is necessary to enforce what they called a “lawful blockade,” in accordance with international law. And that’s when I responded to them with some of the audio that you just played, because in that audio, where they were responding to us over the VHF radio, they started talking about Hamas and why their blockade was lawful, which was all false. It was all absolutely not true, and therefore, I wanted them to know, which — not that they would listen or anything, but that their blockade is, by all international standards, unlawful, because it is deliberately — is being used to deliberately starve a civilian population. It is also war crime.

What I kept repeating is that they need to refrain from attacking us. We are civilians. Do not use force against us, and do not board our vessel. Do not obstruct our path to Gaza, where we are carrying food, medicine and toys for children who you are starving. They, of course, did not listen to that. At some point, they jammed our GPS so we could no longer navigate. They cut our internet, and also, the VHF, I couldn’t call out on it anymore. I had put out a May Day just minutes before for all other vessels that we are under distress and coming under attack by the Israeli Navy. But then I couldn’t use the VHF radio anymore.

So, we took our positions. We had practiced for this, for an Israeli boarding. We took our positions on the boat, and then they came for us. They deliberately came in the dark. They cut all communicated before they board. They boarded dozens and dozens of soldiers, that we lost count. They were masked. They were armed. They each carried a number of different weapons on them. And they had cameras. And they were using their cameras to try to record what their propaganda is going to be, that they were gentle in the takeover, that they were humanitarian, that they tried to offer us food and water, which we refuse, because not only is it propaganda, it just — it disgusts us, actually, while at the same time that they are deliberately starving Palestinians, 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, and Palestinian children, that they want to pretend to be humane in giving us food and water. Our lives are not more important than the lives of the Palestinians in Gaza that they are starving. And so we responded to them just that we are not taking anything from an entity that is deliberately starving children in Gaza. You know, they took over the ship, of course —

AMY GOODMAN: Who were the — who were the special forces, Huwaida?

HUWAIDA ARRAF: To the best of —

AMY GOODMAN: And how many ships did they come in?

HUWAIDA ARRAF: Yeah, to the best of our knowledge, it is the Israeli special commando force called Shayetet Shloshah Esre, Shayetet 13. It’s one of their top, more elite commando forces, the same commando forces that had taken over the Freedom Flotilla vessels before, the same one that also attacked us in 2010, killing 10 of our activists. So, they are —

AMY GOODMAN: That was the Mavi Marmara.

HUWAIDA ARRAF: Yes, yes, on the Mavi Marmara. And, you know, they are, by no means — I mean, you could tell that their propaganda was in full display. They had almost as many cameras as they had soldiers on board. And it’s —

AMY GOODMAN: And can you tell us who you were —

HUWAIDA ARRAF: I hope we —

AMY GOODMAN: — the 21 of you? Explain where you’re from, the journalists, the human rights lawyers, the human rights activists.

HUWAIDA ARRAF: We represented about 12, actually, different countries. A couple of us are citizens. We have — we have Israeli passports. And that’s myself and Bob Suberi. And this is why we were actually released. I can talk about that in a minute. But we had two parliamentarians: a member of the French Parliament and a member of the European Parliament. We definitely had journalists. We had medics. We had engineers. We had writers. We had poets. We had — these are just average civilians from around the world. We don’t have — of course, we don’t have military might or anything behind us.

And we constantly say that, “Why is it that we had to be at sea in international waters in a small boat going to confront one of the most brutal militaries in the world? It is because our countries aren’t doing it.” Our countries are allowing Israel to deliberately starve Palestinians as part of this genocidal campaign that it has been carrying out. And we are horrified and not going to sit by and not do anything about it.

So, we are calling on others around the world, definitely our countries, to live up to their obligation of enforcing international law, of protecting human rights, but also other institutions that are founded to do the same. We should not be waiting for Israel to give permission for food or other humanitarian aid to enter, that we need to be breaking, challenging and breaking the blockade. So, everyone that is just sending humanitarian aid through Egypt, that we know is going to get in a long line at Rafah that Israel is not allowing to enter, they are just giving cover and participating again in Israel’s deliberate starvation campaign, maybe not purposefully, but we need to break the blockade.

And our governments not only have not been doing anything about it, a few governments, a few of the European governments — unfortunately, the U.S. government did not make contact with any of the seven American citizens on board, but the other, like France, Spain, Italy, contacted their citizens on board and told them that they are ready to provide consular services when Israel kidnaps us, which we found to be completely obnoxious. They were legitimizing Israeli piracy on the high seas. And that is unacceptable to us. And that is the kind of impunity that our governments, all governments, really, have been allowing Israel to just violate international law. We have the right as internationals to sail peacefully in international waters without being pirated by the Israeli Navy. And yet, all our governments could say is, “We will provide consular services when you are kidnapped and taken against your will to Israel.” That’s the message we got.

AMY GOODMAN: So, now, what has happened to —

HUWAIDA ARRAF: And so, the message to Israel [inaudible] —

AMY GOODMAN: So, now, what has happened to the 21 people? Who has been released? Who hasn’t? Who has agreed to voluntary deportation? Have you?

HUWAIDA ARRAF: We had the French parliamentarian, who agreed to go almost immediately, and an Italian journalist and two of the Al Jazeera journalists. Those are the ones we know of. There are three people that — the Adalah lawyers, our lawyers, are a legal organization in ’48 that provides legal services, that has provided legal services to the flotilla before, but also does incredible work to protect the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel. They had — they did not get a chance to see three of the participants.

Myself and Bob Suberi were released. Israel, because we are citizens, they only had two choices: whether to release us or to charge us. They spewed some ridiculous charges against us, that we tried to enter Israel illegally. And we said, “You kidnapped us. You brought us here. We did no such thing.” And then they said that we tried to enter a blockaded area. We said that we are sailing according to international law. And I think that they know that they their charges and their legal justification are ridiculous, because they did not charge us. They let us go without any conditions.

But with the internationals, they are able to just deport them. The internationals refused to sign any kind of paper that said that they entered Israel illegally, and so they are brought before a court today. There’s an administrative panel, unfortunately, which will just rubber stamp their deportation no matter what argument we put forth, including the fact that Israel had no jurisdiction or no authority to kidnap us —

AMY GOODMAN: And, Huwaida, you —

HUWAIDA ARRAF: — and bring us against our will to Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Huwaida, you met with — we just have 20 seconds — a group of people who are on hunger strike, after you got out?

HUWAIDA ARRAF: Yes. Well, those of us who were on the boat went on immediate hunger strike when we were commandeered. And then I was brought, after I was released, to Yaffa, where the Arab leadership — it’s called, like, the Arab Higher Committee; it’s basically Arab political leadership — are on an at least three-day hunger strike, which started yesterday, demanding that food and medicine and aid be allowed into Gaza. So, I joined them, and we just reaffirmed the importance of everybody taking all kinds of action and putting pressures on government to end Israel’s policy of starvation and genocide.

AMY GOODMAN: Huwaida Arraf, Palestinian American human rights attorney, speaking to us from Yaffa, after she was detained and released after Israeli forces raided the Gaza Freedom Flotilla called Handala. Is there another one planned? Just five seconds.

HUWAIDA ARRAF: We will not stop. Yes, so we are actively working on another one. We want the whole world to see the extent to which Israel goes to prevent baby formula from getting into Gaza, and hopefully rise up in all ways possible. Until the siege is broken, the genocide ends, and Palestine is free, we will continue sailing.

AMY GOODMAN: Thank you, Huwaida Arraf.

Next up, in an attempt to quell the MAGA base uproar over the Trump administration’s refusal to release the files of Jeffrey Epstein, Trump’s deputy attorney general met for two days — he’s also the former private lawyer for Trump — with the convicted felon Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse young girls. Stay with us. We’ll be joined by an investigative journalist who’s been hosting a series called Chasing Ghislaine.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Body Electric” by Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff, performing in our Democracy Now! studio.