Six Australians, including three Northern Rivers residents, have been detained by the Israel Defence Force (IDF) in international waters off the Gaza coastline as they attempted to deliver humanitarian aid.
Byron Shire resident Surya McEwen, Abubakir Rafiq, Myocum resident Hamish Paterson, Northern Rivers documentary filmmaker Juliet Lamont, Bianca Webb-Pullman, and Dan Coward, were detained approximately 70km from Gaza coastline.
‘The last time I spoke to Surya was yesterday morning,’ his mother, Jacinta McEwan, told The Echo.
‘At that point they were still sailing. Some of the other boats had been intercepted but they hadn’t yet. I was following them on the global tracker. The last time anyone spoke to him [Surya] was one of his land team who talked to him about 1pm [Thursday] and he said they were still sailing.’
Those Australians detained by the IDF were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, the largest coordinated civilian flotilla in history that was attempting to deliver aid to citizens in Gaza.
Nothing to do with Hamas
Jacinta told The Echo that since her son was arrested, she has spoken to friends in Israel who told her that, ‘the civilian flotilla is being portrayed there in a way that makes it look like the flotilla is infiltrated by Hamas – which is just ridiculous’.
‘They are non-violent humanitarians bringing aid from 44 countries. They have nothing to do with Hamas and are working for peace and humanity,’ she said.
A press release on behalf of those detained clarified that, ‘the mission aims to break the illegal siege on Gaza by sea and open a humanitarian corridor to deliver desperately needed aid to Palestinians facing catastrophic conditions.’
‘We demand that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny Wong use all diplomatic and economic tools at their disposal to ensure all six Australians are released immediately. We also demand that Israel be reminded that under International Humanitarian Law Rule 31, Humanitarian relief personnel must be respected and protected.
‘The obligation to respect and protect humanitarian relief personnel is set forth in Article 71(2) of Additional Protocol I. Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, intentionally directing attacks against personnel involved in a humanitarian assistance mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations is a war crime in international armed conflicts, as long as such personnel are entitled to the protection given to civilians under international humanitarian law,’ they stated.
While only one ship made it to Gaza Jacinta said, ‘I feel it has been a successful mission, even though only one boat got there, because it has brought international attention to the plight of the Gazan people.’
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