ISRAEL’S attack, in international waters, on the Madleen ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, and abduction of its crew, is an act of piracy by a rogue state.

Tel Aviv must face immediate pressure to release the crew — and over the issue their courageous mission highlights. Israel is starving Gaza to death.

Its ban on the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is supposedly based on unevidenced claims agency employees were involved in the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. In reality, it is part of Israel’s systematic effort to shred international law and smash any organisation tasked with upholding it.

Distribution by the private US firm the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in its place does not just politicise access to aid, as the UN rightly charges. It is a weapon of war, being used to murder civilians in large numbers.

The available aid falls far short of requirements, forcing Palestinians travelling long distances to walk through the night in a bid to arrive before the food runs out. Yet Israel states that the access lanes are war zones and has shot hundreds dead for walking through them — claiming in justification that they should not be approaching them outside opening hours. Lethal gunfire is the routine method of policing access to the aid centres.

Nobody can claim this is a sincere effort to deliver aid. The slaughter of civilians is clearly intentional. British politicians must be forced to withdraw all co-operation with the Israeli state, end the arms sales and military assistance and put real pressure on Tel Aviv to stop the killing and lift the blockade.