Scots climate activist speaks on capture of Gaza aid boat

The Herald Scotland

a day ago

He said: 'A lot of my friends are involved with the flotilla, so I came to support them. I wanted to be there physically and to obviously help with logistics and anything I could.
'The aid that I was primarily helping with was from locals in Catania, which was incredibly moving. We had so much donated from the locals, more than we could fit in the boat, so that was donated to the local refugee shelter.'
Dylan Hamilton, pictured at COP28. (Image: Dylan Hamilton) Dylan described his emotions as the UK-flagged yacht left the safety of Sicily and set out across the Mediterranean.
He said: 'We followed the boat out of the harbour. But then obviously we came back and it was quite an odd feeling.
'It was quite a difficult week because you know something is going to happen, you know, roughly when it will happen, but you don't know what.'
Early on Monday morning, members of the Israeli military boarded the vessel, detaining 12 passengers including well-known climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The campaigners were taken to Ashdod Port in Israel, where they were shown video footage of the October 7th Hamas terror attacks, which killed around 1200 Israelis.
'The raid happened a bit earlier than I expected,' Dylan said. 'They were still in international waters, around 150 miles from Gaza.
'They've been in touch with lawyers in Israel who support the cause but we didn't hear anything from them for 18 hours.'
Dylan added: 'It's been an incredibly difficult experience. I'm very, very worried that the people that I love are in custody with a genocidal army, but then that is a daily experience for Palestinians.
'They don't get to sit like me at home, completely safe and worry about it. They worry about their families while they wait for another evacuation order as the bombs fall around them.'
Greta Thunberg was among 12 activists who were detained. (Image: Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs/X) Another boat organised by the 'Freedom Flotilla Coalition', dubbed the 'Conscience', was alleged attacked by drones in international waters off the coast of Malta last month.
Dylan believes the presence of high-profile campaigners prevented the Madleen from suffering a similar fate.
'It has obviously been the boat's protection because when they had a media blackout, they got bombed before they ever left. And whereas this time we've had all of this media and international attention, and as far as we know, nobody's been hurt on the boat.'
In a post on X early Tuesday morning, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the activists were in the process of being deported.
The post read: 'The passengers of the 'Selfie Yacht' arrived at Ben Gurion Airport to depart from Israel and return to their home countries. Some of the 'Selfie Yacht' passengers are expected to leave within the next few hours.
'Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority, in accordance with Israeli law, to authorize their deportation. Consuls from the passengers' home countries met them at the airport.'
Read more:
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Dylan said he hopes the widespread media attention will help people understand what people in Palestine are experiencing.
He told The Herald: 'I think this has moved people because it is familiar faces that they know, especially Greta, but ultimately I hope that that translates into a deeper understanding of what Palestinians have gone through.
'The point of the mission was to feed Palestinians and try and ensure that we can do as much as we can to limit the starvation. But ultimately the key goal is to free Palestine.
'This should never have been a possible position, one country should not be able to do this to another and that's the central focus.'