This opinion piece by Charles W. Moore in the Saint John, NB-based Telegraph-Journal, makes the case for Israel's naval blockade of Gaza:
What did they expect? Israel wasn't about to let a bunch of politically-motivated provocateurs breach its three-year blockade of Gaza under the propaganda smokescreen of "delivering humanitarian aid."
Contrary to monotonous Palestinian-sympathizer yammering, neither the blockade nor its conduct in international waters is "illegal." Naval blockades are legal acts of war, regulated by international law and custom, affirmed as such by Article 42 of the UN Charter, which specifically endorses blockading to "maintain or restore international peace and security."
According to the 1994 San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, it is permissible under rule 67(a) to attack neutral vessels on the high seas when such vessels "are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, if after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture." Force may be legally applied in self-defense if necessary in the course of detaining civilian vessels attempting break blockades if detention is met with violent resistance.
One of the fledgling Royal Canadian Navy's first wartime missions was Halifax-based cruiser HMCS Niobe's nine-month patrol off New York Harbor in 1914-15, joining British blockade forces tasked with boarding and searching every vessel leaving that then-neutral port to intercept all German trade and ensure that neutral vessels carried no cargo consigned to the enemy.
Naval blockade rules require advance warning to neutral states, with penalties for breach of blockade including seizure of ships and cargo and their possible seizure as lawful prizes, although neutral ships may not be destroyed for blockade-running.
Hence the necessity for Israeli forces physically boarding the blockade runners, leading to May 31's meleé. IDF forces rappelling from helicopters encountered violent resistance on board, ultimately resulting in deaths of nine alleged "peace activists" and serious injury, including knife and gunshot wounds, to several Israeli soldiers.
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