Israeli forces intercept the Madleen aid ship headed to Gaza
NewsFeed Israeli forces intercept the Madleen aid ship headed to Gaza
Video from Al Jazeera Mubasher showed the crew of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition's Madleen in life jackets with their hands raised as the ship was about to be raided by Israeli forces. Communications with the vessel were cut shortly after.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says 5 aid workers killed by Hamas
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the United States and Israel-backed organisation established to supplant the aid work of the United Nations, has accused Hamas of killing five staff and wounding multiple others in an attack on a bus en route to a food distribution centre. A bus carrying more than two dozen Palestinians working with the organisation was 'brutally attacked' while travelling to a distribution centre west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the foundation said in a statement on Wednesday night. While the organisation was still gathering facts, 'at least' five people were killed and there were 'multiple injuries', the foundation said, adding there were fears that some of its staff had been taken captive. 'We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms. These were aid workers. Humanitarians, brothers, sons, and friends, who were risking their lives every day to help others,' the foundation said. 'Our hearts are broken and our thoughts and prayers are with every victim, every family, and every person still unaccounted for.' Hamas, which governs Gaza, did not immediately comment on the claims. Hamas earlier this week denied that it had threatened the foundation after the organisation accused the Palestinian group of making 'direct threats' against its operations. The aid organisation has been strongly criticised by the UN and rights groups, which have accused it of failing to meet basic humanitarian standards. Numerous Israeli attacks on Palestinians have taken place near the foundation's distribution sites in Rafah and the Netzarim Corridor, with more than 220 people killed since the group began operations on May 27, according to Gaza health authorities. In its statement, the foundation, which on Saturday reported that it had been unable to distribute aid due to Hamas threats, said the attack 'did not happen in a vacuum'. 'For days, Hamas has openly threatened our team, our aid workers, and the civilians who receive aid from us. These threats were met with silence,' the foundation said. 'Tonight the world must see this for what it is: an attack on humanity,' the foundation added. 'We call on the international community to immediately condemn Hamas for this unprovoked attack and continued threat against our people simply trying to feed the Palestinian people.'
Qatar Tribune
5 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
Israel deports 4 from intercepted Gaza-bound Madleen; others held
Israel has deported Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and three others, a day after seizing the Gaza-bound humanitarian aid ship on which she was sailing in a crew of 12. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thunberg flew out of Tel Aviv early on Tuesday, bound for Sweden via France, and released her photos on the flight. Upon arriving in Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, Thunberg told reporters she and her companions had been 'kidnapped in international waters'. Al Jazeera's Natacha Butler, who was among the journalists interviewing Thunberg at the Paris airport, said, 'She clearly looked very tired and was in the same clothes she was wearing when she was detained … This has been quite a difficult number of hours for her.' While Thunberg said she was 'OK', she described being treated in a 'dehumanising way' by Israeli authorities, said Butler. However, she emphasised that her brief detention was nothing compared with what Palestinians regularly endure under Israeli occupation, Butler added. According to the legal rights group Adalah, which is representing Thunberg and the other activists and a journalist who sailed in the Madleen vessel towards Gaza, she was among four crew members who accepted deportation. The remaining crew members will remain in Israeli custody before appearing before judicial authorities. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said five of those subject to forced deportation proceedings are French nationals who have received consular support. One of them is French Member of European Parliament Rima Hassan, who refused to sign a document stating she had entered Israeli territory illegally, according to French lawmaker Clemence Guette. Large rallies have taken place in France and other countries to protest against Israel's interception of the Madleen and the crew's detention. It was carrying humanitarian aid, including rice and baby formula, to Gaza, in a bid to raise awareness about the dire humanitarian crisis in the enclave. On Tuesday, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirmed the status of those who were aboard the Madleen. (Agencies)
Al Jazeera
7 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Unarmed Palestinian brothers killed in Israeli raid on West Bank's Nablus
A Palestinian man in a red cap walks down the narrow alleyway in Nablus's old city towards a group of Israeli soldiers, clearly unarmed. He attempts to talk to the soldiers, who had flooded into the occupied West Bank city in the early hours of Tuesday as part of Israel's latest military raid – believed to be the largest carried out in Nablus in two years. The soldiers immediately kick and shove the man – 40-year-old Nidal Umairah – before his brother walks over, attempting to intervene. Gunfire follows, and soon the two brothers are lying dead. Nidal and his brother 35-year-old brother Khaled were the latest victims of Israel in the West Bank, after they were killed late on Tuesday. It is unclear which brother had initially been detained, but witnesses were adamant that the behaviour of the Israeli soldiers was an unnecessary escalation that led to the deaths of yet more Palestinians. Ghassan Hamdan, the director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Nablus, was at the scene of the killings. 'There were at least 12 soldiers and they all fired their automatic machine guns at once,' said Hamdan. After the two men fell to the ground [medics] asked the soldiers if we could treat their wounds. They answered by firing at all of us.' 'We all took cover behind the walls of the old city,' he told Al Jazeera. Hamza Abu Hajar, a paramedic at the scene, said that the Umairah brother who had initially approached the Israeli soldiers had been trying to go to his house to move his family out and away from the Israeli raid. 'They lifted his shirt up to prove he was unarmed,' Abu Hajar said. 'They then started shooting at him, and at us as well.' The Israeli army said it acted in self-defence after one of the Umairah brothers tried to seize a weapon from a soldier. It said that four soldiers had been injured in the incident. 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. Umm Hassan, a 58-year-old resident who did not want to give her full name, recalls feeling terrified when several Israeli soldiers broke into her home. About five months ago, her husband passed away from cancer, an illness that also claimed two of her children years ago. Umm Hassan is also battling cancer, yet she said Israeli soldiers showed her no mercy. They flipped her television on the ground, broke windows and tossed her paintings off the walls and onto the living room floor. They even vandalised her books by throwing them on the ground, including the Quran. 'I told them to leave me alone. I was alone and so scared. There was nobody to protect me,' Umm Hassan told Al Jazeera. Another woman, Rola, said that Israeli soldiers stormed into her home two times in the span of six hours during the raid. When Israeli soldiers returned the second time, Rola said that they attacked her elderly father, hitting him on the head and chest with the butts of their guns. 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. 'The reason for their raids [violence] is to uphold the [illegal] occupation.'
