
Aid ship bound for Gaza sabotaged in Italy before setting sail
According to the group, a rope had been tightly wound around the ship's propeller and a corrosive substance was poured into the water tank, injuring two crew members.
Despite the sabotage, Handala has now set sail towards Gaza, carrying a group of international activists and essential supplies including baby formula, medication, and toys. The journey is expected to last about a week.
The International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza condemned the incident and urged global powers to ensure the vessel's protection, warning against potential acts of 'Israeli piracy'.
This mission comes six weeks after the Madleen made a similar journey, with high-profile figures including activist Greta Thunberg and French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan on board.
Hashtags

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


Al Etihad
2 hours ago
- Al Etihad
Gaza: Alarm over Israeli move to deregister NGOs
7 Aug 2025 00:16 NEW YORK (WAM)Aid agencies warned on Wednesday that most partner organisations providing vital relief across Gaza will likely have to shut down their operations within weeks, unless Israel withdraws its demand that they provide sensitive information about Palestinian development, which also applies to the occupied West Bank, is a result of the Israeli requirement introduced on March 9 impacting international non-governmental organisations (NGOs).'Unless urgent action is taken…most international NGO partners could be de-registered by 9 September or sooner – forcing them to withdraw all international staff and preventing them from providing critical, lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Palestinians,' said UN and partner aid organisations that are known collectively as the Humanitarian Country Team in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).The UN understands that organisations must now submit, amongst others, details of representatives and all employees in-country, including Palestinian and foreign workers, with full identification and contact foreign worker recommendation requirements, applications must now include marital status and family details, including spouse and children's passport numbers and country of UN agencies still operate in Gaza, working closely with NGO partners to reach the war-torn enclave's most vulnerable people. International NGOs are key as they provide critical support to Palestinian NGOs in the form of supplies, funding and technical support.'Without this cooperation, their operations will be severed, cutting off even more communities from food, medical care, shelter and critical protection services,' said the Humanitarian Country Team, which is overseen by the UN's top aid official in OPT and includes heads of UN agencies and more than 200 local and international NGOs which have not registered under the new system are prohibited from sending any supplies to last month, Israeli authorities rejected repeated requests by 29 of them to ship humanitarian aid to Gaza, citing the organisations as 'not authorised'.'This policy has already prevented the delivery of lifesaving aid including medicine, food, and hygiene items,' the humanitarian collective said. 'This most profoundly affects women, children, older people, and persons with disabilities, further aggravating the risk of being subjected to abuse and exploitation.' In a statement urging Israel to reconsider its demand for sensitive employee information from NGOs, the humanitarian country team insisted that impeding its work violates international law 'when we are receiving daily reports of death by starvation as Gaza faces famine conditions'.


Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
US senator asks tax authority to strip Muslim civil rights organisation of nonprofit status
Republican Senator Tom Cotton called on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Monday to revoke the nonprofit status of the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the US, accusing it of providing material support to terrorists. In his letter, Cotton accused the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) of purporting to be 'a civil rights organization protecting the rights of American Muslims' while having 'deep ties to terrorist organisations'. He alleged the organisation was listed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and that Cair participated in a meeting of Hamas supporters in Philadelphia. 'Tax-exempt status is a privilege, not a right, and it should not subsidize organisations with links to terrorism,' the letter said. Cair denounced the accusations as 'debunked conspiracy theories' in a statement sent to Middle East Eye. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "Tom Cotton's baseless demand that the IRS target a nonprofit organization based on debunked conspiracy theories is an un-American political stunt straight from the McCarthy era and it's motivated by the senator's desire to protect the genocidal Israeli government from criticism," the statement said. Cair said it is an independent organisation that has spent over thirty years defending the US constitution, anti-Muslim bigotry and has "opposed injustice both here and abroad". Former Israeli prime minister urges Jewish Americans to bypass Aipac in Washington Read More » 'This is called moral consistency and Senator Cotton should try it, but he better check with his handlers at AIPAC first," Cair said, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group that has contributed over $230,000 to the senator. This is not the first time Cair has been subject to attacks for its pro-Palestinian advocacy; the organisation is just the latest in a list of pro-Israel campaigns that Cotton has run. In December, the senator introduced a bill in the Senate that sought to eliminate the federal use of the term 'West Bank' and instead implement the use of 'Judea and Samaria', the biblical name for what is now the occupied West Bank, claiming the terminology aligns with Israel's historical and biblical claims to the territory. In November 2024, after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of using starvation as a method of warfare, as well as crimes against humanity, plus other charges, Cotton lashed out at the ICC. At the time, Cotton cited a US law that permits the president to use "all means necessary and appropriate" to free Americans or allies detained by the court. Passed in 2002, the American Service-Members' Protection Act, often referred to as the "Hague Invasion Act," was designed to shield US personnel from ICC jurisdiction. Rights groups argue the law aims to intimidate nations that support the ICC treaty. It authorises military action to rescue any American or allied citizen held by the court in The Hague, the Netherlands. 'The ICC is a kangaroo court and Karim Khan is a deranged fanatic,' Cotton wrote in a social media post on X. Khan is the chief prosecutor at the ICC.

Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Trump administration reverses new guidelines tying Fema funds to Israeli boycotts
A clause in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (Fema) guidelines threatening US states and territories that boycott Israel with the denial of federal funds for natural disaster preparation was discreetly removed from its terms and conditions directives on Monday after backlash. The change in status came after media reports on Monday explained how funding was conditional on states following Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conditions laid out in April. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) announced on Friday it was making nearly $1bn available to states to protect themselves from natural disasters, such as floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and fires, as well as terrorist attacks and cyber disruptions. Read more: Trump administration reverses new guidelines tying Fema funds to Israeli boycotts