Israel says it will block Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg
By with AFP team in Gaza
Israel on Sunday ordered the military to stop a humanitarian ship carrying activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, breaking the blockade of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
"I have instructed the military to prevent the Madleen flotilla from reaching Gaza," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
"Turn back because you will not reach Gaza," Katz added, calling the activists "Hamas propaganda mouthpieces".
The Madleen, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Italy on June 1 with the aim of delivering aid and challenging the Israeli blockade, which has been in place for years even before the Israel-Hamas war since October 2023.
Organizers said Saturday the vessel had entered Egyptian waters and was nearing Gaza, where the war has entered its 21st month.
"We are not armed. There is only humanitarian aid," European Parliament member Rima Hassan told AFP from the boat, vowing to "stay mobilized until the last minute".
The coalition said in a statement on X it expected "interception and an attack from Israel at any moment", calling for protection from the governments of those on board, who are nationals of Germany, France, Brazil, Turkey, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands.
Katz said that "Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade of Gaza, which is aimed at preventing weapons from reaching Hamas -- a murderous terrorist group holding our hostages and committing war crimes."
In Gaza, where the United Nations has repeatedly warned of famine, the civil defense agency said Israeli attacks killed at least 10 people on Sunday, including five civilians hit by gunfire near an aid distribution centre.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal and witnesses said the civilians had been heading to a site west of Rafah, in southern Gaza, run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The GHF has come under criticism from humanitarian agencies and the United Nations refuses to work with it, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality.
Witness Abdallah Nour al-Din told AFP that "people started gathering in the Al-Alam area of Rafah" in the early morning.
"After about an hour and a half, hundreds moved toward the site and the army opened fire," he said.
The Israeli military said it fired on people who "continued advancing in a way that endangered the soldiers" despite warnings.
The GHF said in a statement there had been no incidents "at any of our three sites" on Sunday.
It said it had distributed more than a million meals, including more than 600,000 through a trial of "direct to community distribution" via "community leaders".
Outside Nasser Hospital, where the emergency workers brought the casualties, AFPTV footage showed mourners crying over blood-stained body bags.
"I can't see you like this," said Lin al-Daghma by her father's body.
She spoke of the struggle to access food aid after more than two months of a total Israeli blockade of Gaza, despite a recent easing.
Dozens of people have been killed near GHF distribution points since late May, according to the civil defence agency.
At a charity kitchen in Gaza City, displaced Palestinian Umm Ghassan told AFP she had been unable to collect aid from a GHF site "because there were so many people, and there was a lot of shooting. I was afraid to go in, but there were people who risked their lives for their children and families".
Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said it had located and identified the body of Mohammed Sinwar, presumed Hamas leader in Gaza, in an "underground tunnel route beneath the European Hospital in Khan Yunis", in southern Gaza.
The military, which until Sunday had not confirmed his death, said Israeli forces killed Sinwar on May 13.
Sinwar was the younger brother of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, accused by Israel of masterminding the 2023 attack that triggered the war.
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 54,880 people, the majority civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war. The U.N. considers these figures reliable.
After the deaths of several Hamas leaders, Mohammed Sinwar was thought to be at the heart of decisions on indirect negotiations with Israel.
The military said that alongside Sinwar's body, forces had found "additional intelligence" at the Khan Yunis site "underneath the hospital, right under the emergency room".
Experts said he likely took over as the head of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, after its leader Mohammed Deif was killed by Israel.
The Palestinian group has remained tight-lipped over the names of its top ranks.
© 2025 AFP
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