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Israel intercepts Gaza-bound aid ship, detaining Greta Thunberg and other prominent activists

Israel intercepts Gaza-bound aid ship, detaining Greta Thunberg and other prominent activists

Qatar Tribune3 days ago

Israel has intercepted a Gaza-bound aid ship carrying Greta Thunberg and other prominent activists, detaining those onboard and taking them to Israel.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said the Israeli military had 'attacked' and 'unlawfully boarded' the 'Madleen,' which was attempting to deliver aid to Gaza - where more than 600 days of war, and an 11-week Israeli blockade of all aid, has pushed the enclave's 2.1 million people deeper into a hunger crisis.
Climate activist Thunberg and Rima Hassan — a French member of the European Parliament — are among those on the 'Madleen.'
'(The vessel) is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. The passengers are expected to return to their home countries,' Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a post on X early Monday local time.
The foreign ministry posted a video showing members of the 'Madleen' crew sitting side by side wearing orange life jackets while a solider offers them bottled water and plastic-wrapped sandwiches. Thunberg can be seen sitting near the front of the group.
The FFC had earlier said the ship had come 'under assault in international waters,' in a Telegram post.
'Quadcopters are surrounding the ship, spraying it with a white paint-like substance. Communications are jammed, and disturbing sounds are being played over the radio,' the FFC said. A video posted by Israel's foreign ministry appeared to show a Navy staffer sending a radio message to the vessel saying the 'maritime zone off the coast of Gaza was closed.'
In a video livestreamed from the boat, activist Yasmin Acar showed a white substance on the deck, saying it had been dropped on the vessel. Acar was later heard saying it was affecting her eyes.
The FFC group also posted a video on Telegram, showing members of the crew sitting inside the boat with their hands in the air.
After losing communication with the vessel, the FFC began posting pre-recorded video messages from Thunberg and others onboard. 'If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel,' Thunberg said in her video.
In a statement, the FFC said Israel had acted with 'total impunity' and that the vessel's cargo, which included baby formula, food and medical supplies was 'confiscated.' Israel said it would transfer the goods to Gaza through humanitarian channels.
'Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard the Madleen,' said Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney and Freedom Flotilla organizer. 'This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the (International Court of Justice's) binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.'
Israel had repeatedly vowed to stop the aid boat from reaching Gaza, and described the ship as a 'selfie yacht' carrying 'celebrities.'
'I have instructed the IDF to ensure that the 'Madleen' flotilla does not reach Gaza,' Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said on Sunday.
After the flotilla crew members were detained, Katz said in a post on X that he had instructed the military to screen videos of the Hamas attacks on Israel from October 7, 2023 to the activists upon their arrival at Ashdod Port.
Israel's foreign ministry said the group 'attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity.'
'There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip — they do not involve Instagram selfies,' it added.
In an earlier statement on Monday, the ministry said 'unauthorized attempts to breach the blockade are dangerous, unlawful, and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts.'
Hamas demanded the immediate release of the activists and condemned their detention in a statement, calling the interception 'a flagrant violation of international law, and an attack on civilian volunteers acting out of humanitarian motives.'
The 'Madleen' is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an organization that has campaigned against Israel's blockade of Gaza and tried to break the siege by boat.
The crew, which had publicized the location of the ship with an online tracker, began preparing for the possibility of interception by the Israeli military. On Monday morning, the UK-flagged civilian vessel was north of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, slowly approaching the coast of Gaza, but the tracker has since appeared to have stopped.
'We know that it's a very risky mission and we know that previous experiences with flotillas like this have resulted in attacks, violence and even cases of death,' Thunberg told
CNN
on Saturday.
Israel imposed a full humanitarian blockade of Gaza on March 2, cutting off food, medical supplies, and other aid to the more than 2 million Palestinians who live in the territory for 11 weeks.
Faced with growing international pressure, Israel began allowing a trickle of aid in late May. But humanitarian organizations say it is only a fraction of the aid that entered the enclave before the war, and have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis and the growing risk of widespread famine. A UN-backed report warned in late April that one in five people were facing starvation.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed over the past week while on their way to try and obtain aid from a new US-backed group commissioned to deliver aid to Gaza, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The group is intended to replace the UN-led system of distributing aid in Gaza. The United Nations has warned that the new distribution mechanism has become a 'death trap' for desperate people seeking food in the strip.
Last month, another vessel from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition came under what its organizers claimed was an Israeli drone attack off the coast of Malta in international waters. The group did not provide evidence that the drone was Israeli, while the Israeli military has declined to comment on the alleged attack.
The ship, the 'Conscience,' was heading to Malta, where a large contingent of activists, including Thunberg, were due to board before it departed for Gaza.
The later voyage on the 'Madleen,' which was intercepted by Israel, departed from Sicily last Friday.

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Unarmed Palestinian brothers killed in Israeli raid on West Bank's Nablus
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Al Jazeera

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  • Al Jazeera

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The raid in Nablus, which lasted more than 24 hours, is the latest Israel has conducted in the West Bank. Israel has taken advantage of the world's focus on its own war on Gaza since October 2023 to escalate its land theft and violence in the West Bank. During that span, Israel has killed at least 930 people in the West Bank, 24 of whom were from Nablus, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Many of these deaths are the result of violent Israeli raids ostensibly aimed at clamping down on Palestinian fighters in the West Bank, but which have resulted in mass destruction and thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes. According to Hamdan, Israeli troops mainly targeted Nablus's old city by storming into hundreds of homes in the middle of the night. Dozens of people were also reportedly arrested. Young people in the city protested by burning tyres and throwing rocks at Israeli troops, yet they were met with heavy tear gas, injuring at least 80 Palestinians in the raid. In the past, Palestinian protesters have been imprisoned on 'terrorism' charges or shot and killed for simply resisting Israel's occupation by throwing rocks or defying Israeli soldiers. This time around, the Israelis classified the entire old city in Nablus as a closed military zone for 24 hours. No ambulances or medics were allowed inside to aid distressed residents, said Hamdan. 'Nobody was allowed in or out. Nobody was allowed to make any movement at all. We [as medics] could not enter the area during the entire raid to try and help people in need,' he told Al Jazeera. During the raid, Israeli troops stormed into several apartments after blowing off door hinges with explosives. 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Rola described her three nieces and nephews – all small children – cowering with fear as Israeli soldiers vandalised and destroyed their home. 'The second time they came to our home, they put us all in a room and we weren't able to leave the room from 8am until 3:30pm,' said Rola. 'We [Palestinians] always talk about being resilient. But the reality is when Israeli soldiers come into your private home, then you get very scared. It's natural. We are humans and humans get scared,' she told Al Jazeera. More than 80 Palestinians received treatment from the Palestine Red Crescent Society during the raid, 25 of them as a result of gunshot wounds. While Israel says its raid was 'precise', inhabitants of Nablus say that the attack on the city was the latest attempt to intimidate and frighten Palestinians. 'Honestly, what were Israeli soldiers searching for in my home? What did they think they were going to find?' asked Rola. 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