Aid to Gaza, Flotilla rejects mediation: what can happen now

Speaking a few hours earlier for an information in the House and Senate on the matter, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto emphasised that 'in Israeli waters we cannot guarantee security'. There are about fifty Italians on board the flotilla, including MPs and MEPs. The Italian government decided to send a military ship to protect the GSF, the Frigate Fasan, which reached the area where the Global Flotilla was sailing for possible rescue, assistance, and protection of people who might be in danger. "Since Nave Fasan will have to return to its original mission," explained Crosetto, "it left for the area Nave Alpino, which probably also has equipment that could reveal earlier possibilities of danger.

But this presence is limited to navigation in international waters. The problem will arise when the Flotilla arrives in waters blocked by Israeli forces. "For the flotilla we are still 450 miles from the dangerous point," clarified the Defence Minister, but "our intention is to make it clear that once we are out of international waters no one will be able to guarantee safety or even help in case something happens. I say this while perceiving the gravity of a situation that perhaps escapes us: it is a gravity of the situation that depends neither on the will of this Parliament or this Government nor on the other 44 governments or parliaments of the 44 nations that are represented among the crews of the flotilla'. Because,' Crosetto continued, 'once they leave international waters and enter the waters where we all know there is an Israeli blockade, which are considered Israeli, they will get out of control and out of the possibility of each of us acting to protect these people'.

In a note, the minister further clarified the concept: 'As I clearly said, both in Parliament and on the way out, there will not be two ships deployed in the area at the same time,' reads the leaked document. The frigate Alpino will in fact replace the frigate Fasan, which will return to its original mission. To repeat, again, what I said clearly in Parliament, the Italian naval units do not perform escort functions, nor will they leave international waters, should the flotilla decide to force the Israeli blockade. On the contrary, one of the objectives is to avert such an eventuality and avoid possible negative consequences'. The Defence Minister then recalled that the Foreign Ministry, in close coordination with Defence, has offered a solution to allow the arrival of humanitarian aid, and has ensured the presence of a military ship near the area, ready to provide assistance and relief. "It remains essential, however," the note goes on to say, "that the flotilla does not attempt to force the blockade: exposing human lives to risk in waters in which it would not be possible to intervene in rescue would not make any sense and would entail unnecessary danger.

The government's decision to send the frigate Fasan, which will later be replaced by the Alpino, "falls within the protection of our compatriots abroad, which is a task of the Armed Forces, in this case the Navy," explains retired Admiral Fabio Caffio, adjunct professor of "Introduction geopolitics and international law of the sea" at the University of Bari. The operation in international waters, he adds, is 'a preventive measure adherent to international law and the attributions of the Navy. Assistance at sea to those in difficulty is in fact the Navy's main task: a non-military task in terms of its aims, but a military one in terms of the means employed. Precisely for this reason,' observes Caffio, 'it cannot be assumed that the sending of our unit has an offensive nature, given the absence of any military purpose, apart, of course, from the right to use force if attacked'. In the background, he concludes, 'there are also other issues such as the right to freely and peacefully express one's thoughts at sea, as well as Israel's right to implement self-protection measures in a context of war provided that the canons of necessity and proportionality are respected'.