Maritime Lawfare and Hostile Humanitarianism: the Gaza flotillas as hybrid warfare against Israeli legitimacy

This article examines ‘Hostile Humanitarianism’: the strategic use of humanitarian and legal discourse within adversarial political campaigns. While related dynamics appear in existing scholarship, this study consolidates them in the maritime domain and situates Maritime Lawfare within broader hybrid legitimacy contestation. Analysing the 2025 Global Sumud and Global Resilience flotillas to Gaza, it shows how humanitarian voyages operated as coordinated transnational campaigns generating legal scrutiny, reputational pressure, and diplomatic costs through sustained moral and legal framing. It identifies three interlocking axes – civil-societal, religious-ideological, and international-diplomatic – and outlines Counter-Lawfare Diplomacy as a strategic response for democratic states.