On 31 May 2010, a flotilla of six ships attempted to violate the naval blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip. The ships were intercepted by the IDF (the takeover of one ship – the Mavi Marmara – turned violent and resulted in the death of nine civilians and the injury of several civilians and IDF soldiers), [2] and all six ships were diverted to the Israeli port of Ashdod for inspection of the goods on board. Upon arriving at the Ashdod Port, the foreign passengers of the ships were presented with a choice of leaving Israel immediately, or remaining in detention in the custody of the Israeli authorities.
Following these events, several petitions were submitted to the HCJ. The first petition, submitted on the morning of 1 June 2010, claimed that the Israeli government and the IDF had committed serious crimes during the takeover operation, and requested that the HCJ issue Habeas Corpus orders to release all the passengers who had been detained at the time. [3] Later that same day, another petition was submitted by Adalah and other human rights NGOs, asking the Court to order the State to provide information about the detainees and their whereabouts. [4] Another petition submitted by Al-Jazeera [5] requested the immediate release of the media personnel that were on the ships. However, since the media personnel were released during the hearing of the petition, the petition was withdrawn.
On 1 June 2010, the Israeli Government issued a statement declaring that all the foreign participants of the flotilla would be released immediately and deported from Israel. Following this announcement, three petitions were filed asking the HCJ to order the State to refrain from releasing the detainees. [6] The request was mainly based on the claim that these people had committed felonies and must, therefore, be interrogated before being released, at the very least.
In its response to the first two petitions, [7] the State asked the Court to reject the petitions, claiming that the aim of the naval blockade is to prevent the entry of firearms and other war materials into the Gaza Strip, since they could be used for terrorist attacks against Israel and its citizens. According to the State, the blockade was established in accordance with the customary rules of international humanitarian law, and the real purpose of the flotilla was to violate the blockade under the false pretense of a humanitarian mission. The State also justified the use of force by its soldiers upon boarding the Mavi Marmara as an act of self-defense in response to the violent attacks against them, and claimed that responsibility for the grim results of the clashes rests with the organizers of the flotilla and the participants who attacked the Israeli soldiers.
After intercepting the flotilla and docking the ships at Ashdod Port, the foreign passengers were required to disembark from the ships and were treated in accordance with Israeli law, which provides for the deportation of foreign persons who do not possess an entry permit into the State, and for their detention until their deportation.
Since all the petitions were urgent and related to the same detainees, the HCJ decided to conduct a unified hearing for all of the petitions. Following this hearing, the HCJ published its decision to reject all the petitions on 2 June 2010.