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

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al Jazeera
an hour ago
- Al Jazeera
Explainer: What is the Global March to Gaza all about?
Thousands of activists from across the globe are marching to the Gaza Strip to try to break Israel's suffocating siege and draw international attention to the genocide it is perpetrating there. Approximately 1,000 people participating in the Tunisian-led stretch of the Global March to Gaza, known as the Sumud Convoy, arrived in Libya on Tuesday morning, a day after they departed the Tunisian capital, Tunis. They are now resting in Libya after a full day of travel, but do not yet have permission to cross the eastern part of the North African country. The group, which mostly comprises citizens of the Maghreb, the Northwest African region, is expected to grow as people join from countries it passes through as it makes its way towards the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza. How will they do it? When will they get there? What is this all about? Here's all you need to know: The Coordination of Joint Action for Palestine is leading the Sumud Convoy, which is tied to the Global March for Palestine. In total, there are about 1,000 people, travelling on a nine-bus convoy, with the aim of pressurising world leaders to take action on Gaza. Sumud is supported by the Tunisian General Labour Union, the National Bar Association, the Tunisian League for Human Rights, and the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights. It is coordinating with activists and individuals from 50 countries who are flying into the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on June 12, so that they can all march to Rafah together. Some of those activists are affiliated with an umbrella of grassroots organisations, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, Codepink Women for Peace in the United States and Jewish Voice for Labour in the United Kingdom. The convoy of cars and buses has reached Libya. After taking a brief rest, the plan is for it to continue towards Cairo. 'Most people around me are feeling courage and anger [about what's happening in Gaza],' said Ghaya Ben Mbarek, an independent Tunisian journalist who joined the march just before the convoy crossed into Libya. Ben Mbarek is driven by the belief that, as a journalist, she has to 'stand on the right side of history by stopping a genocide and stopping people from dying from hunger'. Once Sumud links up with fellow activists in Cairo, they will head to El Arish in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and then embark on a three-day march to the Rafah crossing to Gaza. The convoy has yet to receive permission to pass through eastern Libya from authorities in the region. Libya has two rival administrations, and while the convoy has been welcomed in the west, discussions are still ongoing with authorities in the east, an official from the convoy told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. The activists had previously told The Associated Press news agency they do not expect to be allowed into Gaza, yet they hope their journey will pressure world leaders to force Israel to end its genocidal war. Another concern lies in Egypt, which classifies the stretch between El Arish and the Rafah border crossing as a military zone and does not allow anyone to enter unless they live there. The Egyptian government has not issued a statement on whether it will allow the Global March to Gaza to pass through its territory. 'I doubt they would be allowed to march towards Rafah,' a longtime Egyptian activist, whose name is being withheld for their safety, said. 'It's always national security first,' they told Al Jazeera. If the convoy makes it to Rafah, it will have to face the Israeli army at the crossing. Palestine supporters have tried everything over the years as Gaza suffered. Since Israel's genocidal war began 20 months ago, civilians have protested in major capitals and taken legal action against elected officials for abetting Israel's mass killing campaign in Gaza. Activists have sailed on several humanitarian aid boats towards Gaza, trying to break a stifling blockade that Israel has imposed since 2007; all were attacked or intercepted by Israel. In 2010, in international waters, Israeli commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara, one of the six boats in the Freedom Flotilla sailing for Gaza. They killed nine people, and one more person died of their wounds later. The Freedom Flotilla kept trying as Gaza suffered one Israeli assault after another. Israel's current war on Gaza prompted 12 activists from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition to set sail on board the Madleen from Italy on June 1, hoping to pressure world governments to stop Israel's genocide. However, the activists were abducted by Israeli forces in international waters on June 9. The activists will try, even if they are pretty sure they will not get into Gaza. They say standing idle will only enable Israel to continue its genocide until the people of Gaza are all dead or ethnically cleansed. 'The message people here want to send to the world is that even if you stop us by sea, or air, then we will come, by the thousands, by land,' said Ben Mbarek. 'We will literally cross deserts … to stop people from dying from hunger,' she told Al Jazeera. Since Israel began its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, it has strangled the food and supplies entering the Palestinian enclave, engineering a famine that has likely killed thousands and could kill hundreds of thousands more. Israel has carpet-bombed Gaza, killing at least 54,927 people and injuring more than 126,000. Legal scholars previously told Al Jazeera the suffering in Gaza suggests Israel is deliberately inflicting conditions to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people in whole or in part – the precise definition of genocide. Global outrage has grown as Israel continues to kill civilians in thousands, including children, aid workers, medics and journalists. Since March, Israel has tightened its chokehold on Gaza, completely stopping aid and then shooting at people lining up for what little aid it allows in, leading to rare statements of condemnation from Western governments.


Qatar Tribune
an hour ago
- Qatar Tribune
Qatar slams fabricated reports in Israeli media
Tribune News Network Doha Qatar has slammed recent fabricated reports in the Israeli media, denouncing them as 'a deliberate' attempt to sow division between the Gulf state and the US at a critical time of their joint mediation efforts in the Gaza Strip. In a statement, the International Media Office of the State of Qatar said fabricated documents are once again circulating in the Israeli media in an attempt to sow division between Qatar and the US at a crucial stage in the efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. 'The timing of their release is no coincidence. It is a deliberate distraction, deployed by those who want to deflect attention from negative coverage of their own irresponsible actions in Gaza – including those reported in the news over the past week – at a moment when a breakthrough is within reach,' the statement said. It added that this tactic has been used previously by those who want diplomacy to fail. They do not want Qatar's work with the Trump administration – on the Gaza file and other regional files – to succeed in bringing peace to the region. Similar methods have been used against those who have spoken out against the continuation of the war, or worked diplomatically to bring the hostages home including members of President Trump's administration, in an effort to discredit them and undermine the diplomatic process. 'Their efforts will not succeed. No fabricated documents will weaken the bond between Qatar and the United States.' The statement said, 'We urge all media outlets to remain vigilant against misinformation spread by those who want to disrupt the negotiations by any means necessary in order to prolong the conflict.'


Qatar Tribune
an hour ago
- Qatar Tribune
Iran reveals secret documents on Israeli nuclear weapons programme
TehrancTypeface:> Iran has published what it claims is secret information about Israel's nuclear weapons programme. In a statement released by the secret service to pro-government media on Tuesday, Iran accused the United States and European countries of being 'cooperation partners and contractors' in Israel's nuclear weapons programme. Iran said the documents contain precise information about secret Israeli locations and the names of scientists involved in nuclear weapons projects, including foreigners. There is broad international consensus that Israel possesses nuclear weapons. (DPA)