Ex-UK diplomat says Israel’s flotilla raid breaches international law

Craig Murray, a former senior British diplomat, has accused Israel of acting outside international law in its raid on the Gaza aid flotilla.

“The flotilla is on the High Seas and not in Israel’s 12 mile territorial sea. Israel has no jurisdiction,” Murray wrote on X.

Murray previously led UK delegations on maritime law at the United Nations and stressed that “an attack by a state military warship on a vessel on the High Seas is an attack on the flag state of the vessel attacked.”

He warned that the “possession of vessels and the abduction of crews” at sea amounts to crimes that can be prosecuted not only under international law but also in domestic courts.

“So the Metropolitan Police and DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] have an obligation to investigate and act over the abduction of persons from UK flagged vessels on the High Seas,” he said.

“This applies to each flag state mutatis mutandi,” Murray added.