Greta Thunberg sailing to Gaza on aid ship after drone attack setback
Another vessel operated by the group, the Conscience, was hit by two drones just outside Maltese territorial waters in early May. FFC said Israel was to blame for the incident. Israel has not responded to requests for comment.
More: Activist aid ship hit by drones on way to Gaza, NGO says
"We are doing this because no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying, because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity," Thunberg told reporters at a conference before the departure.
She added that "no matter how dangerous this mission is, it is nowhere near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the lives being genocised".
FFC said the trip "is not charity. This is a non-violent, direct action to challenge Israel's illegal siege and escalating war crimes".
The situation in Gaza is the worst since the war between Israel and Hamas militants began 19 months ago, the United Nations said on May 30, despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries in the Palestinian enclave.
More: US proposes 60-day ceasefire for Gaza; hostage-prisoner swap, plan shows
Under growing global pressure, Israel ended an 11-week blockade on Gaza, allowing limited U.N.-led operations to resume.
On June 2, a new avenue for aid distribution was also launched - the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation - backed by the United States and Israel, but with which the U.N. and international aid groups have refused to work, saying it is not neutral and has a distribution model that forces the displacement of Palestinians.
(Reporting by Danilo Arnone in Catania and Giulia Segreti in Rome.)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
Humanitarian vessel on aid mission to Gaza rescues 4 migrants at sea; dozens returned to Libya
A ship carrying activists, including Greta Thunberg, to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid rescued four migrants on Thursday after they had jumped into the sea from another vessel to avoid being picked up by Libyan authorities. The vessel Madleen, which is operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was alerted by the European Union's Frontex border control agency and arrived at the location in the Mediterranean where it found 30-40 people on a 'boat that was rapidly deflating.' As the Madleen launched its own inflatable rescue boat, a Libyan coast guard vessel approached at high speed, the coalition said. "To avoid being taken by the Libyan authorities, four people jumped into the sea, and began desperately swimming toward the Madleen,'' which rescued them. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition protested the return of the other migrants to Libya, where human rights campaigners have said they face abuse and even torture. It also has called on Italy, Greece and Malta to pick up those now on board the Madleen and bring them to safety in Europe. Climate campaigner Thunberg is among 12 activists aboard the Madleen which departed Sicily on Sunday on a mission that aims to break the sea blockade on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid while raising awareness over the growing humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave. The voyage was to last seven days. Among the others on board are 'Game of Thrones' actor Liam Cunningham and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament who is of Palestinian descent. She has been barred from entering Israel due to her active opposition to the Israeli assault on Gaza. After a three month total blockade aimed at pressuring Hamas, Israel started allowing some basic aid into Gaza last month, but humanitarian works have warned of famine unless the blockade ends. Almost the entire Gaza population of 2.3 million is acutely malnourished and one in five Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, the World Food Program has warned. An attempt last month by Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza by sea failed after another of the group's vessels was attacked by two drones while sailing in international waters off Malta. The group blamed Israel for the attack, which damaged the front section of the ship.
Reuters
26 minutes ago
- Reuters
Remains of Canadian hostage returned to Israel, Canadian PM Carney says
TORONTO, June 5 (Reuters) - The remains of Judih Weinstein, a Canadian citizen who was taken hostage by Hamas during its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, have been returned to Israel, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement on Thursday. "As the family grieves the unimaginable loss of both Ms. Weinstein and her husband, Gadi Haggai, who was murdered in that same horrific attack, the return of their remains is a time to begin to heal and to rest," Carney said.
Daily Mirror
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
8 unhinged Donald Trump moments as he brings back his most hated policy
Donald Trump is back out there playing the hits - and here's a cut from his first album you all know and love. Previously known as the 'Muslim ban' - because of who it was predominantly aimed at - Trump's first-term travel ban was struck down by so many courts that by the time it went into force it was basically pointless. There were protests at airports, furious op-eds in the newspapers. It was a story that ran and ran - and was one of the main reasons for Trump's approval rating being so dramatically terrible so quickly into his first term. Aside from the approval rating, which is garbage already, none of the above is likely to happen this time. In Trump 2.0, it barely even makes the front pages. But hey, here's a look at the new travel ban - and all the other mad things he did in the last 24 hours that you need to know about You'll recall in 2017, he announced a ban on travel to the United States from seven majority Muslim countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Well, he went on TV last night and announced a travel ban on TWELVE countries. - Afghanistan - Myanmar - Chad - Congo-Brazzaville - Equatorial Guinea - Eritrea - Haiti - Iran - Libya - Somalia - Sudan - Yemen Of those, seven - Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Chad - are majority Muslim. The others are not, though Eritrea is about 50/50. In his TV address, he made a reference to the recent Boulder attack - in which an Egyptian national who had overstayed his visa turned a home-made flame thrower on a group of Jewish people holding a vigil for hostages held by Hamas. He said the attack "underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas. We don't want 'em." Curiously, Egypt is not on the list of restricted countries. He went on to claim his first term Muslim ban was "a key part of preventing foreign terror attacks on American soil." The University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database lists two major incidents tied to Islamist militants that caused deaths during Trump's first term. In December 2017, ISIS claimed responsibility after a man drove a Home Depot truck onto a bike path in New York to run over pedestrians and cyclists. Eight died and 13 were injured. And in 2019, a member of the Saudi Air Force, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, opened fire on a Naval Base in Pensacola Florida. Four people including the assailant were killed in the attack. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility. Another attack, in December 2017, saw a suicide bomber detonate a pipe bomb at the Port Authority bus terminal in New York. Nobody died, but the assailant and three others were injured. The perpetrator said he'd done it for the Islamic State. Trump said in his address: "We will not let what happened in Europe happen in America." It was entirely unclear what he meant by this. It wasn't explained in the address, and wasn't clarified in the executive order. But the implication was that for some reason, Europe is bad and America doesn't want to be like it. On Wednesday afternoon Trump had a 75 minute phone call with Vladimir Putin. In the closest we have to a readout of the call - Trump's Truth Social post - it seems like the President found the Russian dictator utterly charming. It was a "good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace," the President wrote, prompting some to wonder whether they actually spent an hour and a quarter discussing this week's episode of Taskmaster or something. Elsewhere, Trump noted Putin had told him he would "have to respond" to Ukraine making a mess of his planes in a drone strike the other day "very strongly". There's no suggestion in the post that Trump tried to talk him out of it. In fact, he seemed utterly sympathetic to that silver tongued divvil Putin - as he often is with the person he most recently spoke to on any given subject. I suspect this will have prompted a rush from European leaders to try and be the new person he most recently spoke to about Ukraine. All the dictators are on call waiting for Trump, it seems. President Xi Jinping had a chat with him this afternoon, presumably to talk over the ongoing trade war. This one seemed to go less well. "I like President XI of China," Trump wrote. "Always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!" Trade negotiations between the United States and China stalled shortly after a May 12 agreement between both countries to reduce their tariff rates in order to have talks. Behind the gridlock has been the continued competition for an economic edge. As tension between the White House and Europe heats up, the Mirror has launched its very own US Politics WhatsApp community where you'll get all the latest news from across the pond. We'll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in. All you have to do to join is , select 'Join Chat' and you're in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group. We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you're curious, you can read our . Just like the director of Good Will Hunting, Donald Trump has decided that what his audience really wants to see is a working class hero having a scrap with a posh university in Boston. (Trump is Matt Damon in this analogy, in case you were confused). Now he's moving to block nearly all foreign students from entering the country to attend Harvard University, his latest attempt to choke the Ivy League school from an international pipeline that accounts for a quarter of the student body. In an executive order signed Wednesday, Trump declared that it would jeopardise national security to allow Harvard to continue hosting foreign students on its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's a further escalation in the White House's fight with the nation's oldest and wealthiest university. A federal court in Boston blocked the Department of Homeland Security from barring international students at Harvard last week. Trump's order invokes a different legal authority. In a statement Wednesday night, Harvard said it will 'continue to protect its international students.' 'This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard's First Amendment rights,' university officials said. How d'you like them apples? Trump has reportedly appointed a 22-year-old to tackle US extremism. Tomas Fugate's last job, according to Propublica, was pulling up weeds as a neighbourhood gardener. But just 12 months after graduating from the University of Texas at San Antonio, he's heading up the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security. He has no apparent experience in the field of counterextremism In 2020, according to his LinkedIn, he was a Landscape Business Owner, and described his job thus: "Performed lawn-care work around my neighbourhood, for a price that depended on the square footage of the yard. My duties consisted of mowing the yard, weed-whacking the weeds, edging round the yard, then the cleanup of debris." With a resume like that, he'll be in the cabinet by the end of the month. Follow our Mirror Politics account on Bluesky here. And follow our Mirror Politics team here - Lizzy Buchan, Mikey Smith, Kevin Maguire, Sophie Huskisson, Dave Burke and Ashley Cowburn. Be first to get the biggest bombshells and breaking news by joining our Politics WhatsApp group here. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you want to leave our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Or sign up here to the Mirror's Politics newsletter for all the best exclusives and opinions straight to your inbox. And listen to our exciting new political podcast The Division Bell, hosted by the Mirror and the Express every Thursday.
