Israeli forces halt aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and detain activists
Israeli forces stopped a Gaza-bound aid boat and detained Greta Thunberg and other activists who were on board early on Monday, enforcing a longstanding blockade of the Palestinian territory that has been tightened during the war with Hamas.
The activists had set out to protest against Israel's ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip and its restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid, both of which have put the territory of some two million Palestinians at risk of famine.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which had organised the voyage, said the activists were 'kidnapped by Israeli forces' while trying to deliver desperately needed aid to the territory.
'The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo — including baby formula, food and medical supplies —confiscated,' it said in a statement.
Israel's Foreign Ministry cast the voyage as a public relations stunt, saying in a post on X that 'the 'selfie yacht' of the 'celebrities' is safely making its way to the shores of Israel'.
It said the passengers would return to their home countries and the aid would be delivered to Gaza through established channels.
The boat was expected to arrive at the Israeli port of Ashdod later on Monday.
It later circulated footage of what appeared to be Israeli military personnel handing out sandwiches and water to the activists, who were wearing orange life vests.
Thunberg, a climate campaigner, was among 12 activists aboard the Madleen, which set sail from Sicily a week ago. Along the way, it had stopped on Thursday to rescue four migrants who had jumped overboard to avoid being detained by the Libyan coast guard.
'I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible,' Thunberg said in a pre-recorded message released after the ship was halted.
Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament who is of Palestinian descent, was also among the volunteers on board. She has been barred from entering Israel because of her opposition to Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.
After a two-and-a-half-month total blockade aimed at pressuring Hamas, Israel started allowing some basic aid into Gaza last month, but humanitarian workers and experts have warned of famine unless the blockade is lifted and Israel ends its military offensive.
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.
Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza's Palestinian population.
Israel sealed Gaza off from all aid in the early days of the war ignited by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, but later relented under US pressure.
In early March, shortly before Israel ended a ceasefire with Hamas, the country again blocked all imports, including food, fuel and medicine.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and abducted 251 hostages, more than half of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Hamas is still holding 55 hostages, more than half of them believed to be dead.
Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up most of the dead. It does not say whether those killed are civilians or combatants.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of the territory's population, leaving people there almost completely dependent on international aid.
Efforts to broker another truce have been deadlocked for months.
Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal, while Israel has vowed to continue the war until all the captives are returned and Hamas is defeated or disarmed and exiled.
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Palestinians carry bags containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP) It paused delivery at its three distribution sites last week to hold discussions with the military about improving safety on the routes. GHF closed the Rafah site on Monday due to the 'chaos of the crowds', according to a Facebook site associated with the group. Advertisement A GHF spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. – Shots fired from the 'dangerous zone' Heba Joda, who was in the crowd Monday, said gunfire broke out at a roundabout where previous shootings have occurred, around a kilometre (half a mile) from the aid site. She said the shots came from the 'dangerous zone' where Israeli troops and their allies are stationed. She said she saw men from a local militia led by Yasser Abu Shabab trying to organise the crowds into lines on the road. Advertisement When people pushed forward, the gunmen opened fire. 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A man accused of being 'a Hamas operative' based in London is a key figure behind Greta Thunberg's Gaza-bound aid boat, it emerged on Monday. Zaher Birawi, who was described in Parliament as a person with links to Hamas, describes himself as a 'founding member' of the Freedom Flotilla International Coalition, which arranged the voyage by the aid boat Madleen. Israeli forces boarded and seized the boat on Sunday – detaining the 12 pro-Palestinian activists it was carrying, including Ms Thunberg – as it attempted to bring a 'symbolic' amount of aid to Gaza in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade. Mr Birawi, a Palestinian-British journalist at an Arabic-language satellite TV channel in London, was at the launch of the Madleen a week ago, livestreaming it from its dock in Sicily. Ms Thunberg gave a speech before the boat set sail for Gaza. In 2013, Mr Birawi was designated by Israel as a Hamas operative in Europe and is the head of the Europal Forum, which Israel designated as a terrorist organisation in 2021. The Europal Forum strongly denied any terror links, and in 2021 Mr Birwani received compensation after taking legal action against a financial database, which he said had wrongly placed him on a terrorism watch list. He denied ever being involved in any illegal acts within the scope of terrorism crimes. Speaking in the Commons in October 2023, Christian Wakeford, the Labour MP for Bury South, used parliamentary privilege to name 63-year-old Mr Birawi as a Hamas operative living in Barnet, north London. 'He is listed as a trustee of a UK-registered charity, Education Aid for Palestinians, and publicly available video shows him hosting a 2019 event in London titled Understanding Hamas,' Mr Wakeford told MPs. 'Two weeks ago, Hamas launched the deadliest terror attack [the Oct 7 attack on Israel] the world has seen since 9/11. 'It is therefore a serious national security risk for Hamas operatives to be living here in London, especially where at least one appears to have done so through the use of fake documents in obtaining British citizenship.' There is no suggestion that Mr Birwani was involved in the Oct 7 attack. Hamas has been proscribed as a terror group in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000 since 2021. Mr Birawi was photographed in 2012 with Ismail Haniyeh, the former Hamas leader who was assassinated last year by an explosive device suspected to have been placed by Israeli agents in his guest house in Tehran. Mr Birawi is a high-profile British-Palestinian activist linked to several charities and organisations and helped organise protests against Israel in London since the outbreak of the Gaza war. He is a trustee of UK-registered charity, Education Aid for Palestinians, which has spent more than £2 million on activities since 2019. In a Facebook post following the Israeli operation on Sunday, Mr Birawi wrote: 'In a piracy operation in international waters and 150 nautical miles from Palestinian waters, the Israeli navy took control of the ship Madleen and abducted the allies on board. 'The Freedom Flag Alliance demands international intervention to ensure their safety and release.' Writing about the Madleen mission earlier this month, Mr Birawi wrote: 'It carries a message of solidarity with Gaza, a message of defiance and determination to continue popular efforts to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.' He added that it was 'an affirmation of the Palestinians' fundamental right to communicate with the world by sea and their right to establish a humanitarian corridor to bring in aid and relief supplies during the war of extermination waged by the Israeli occupation state against Gaza.' As the chairman of EuroPal Forum, Mr Birawi delivered a letter in Whitehall to the Cabinet condemning Israel. 'What we are witnessing is not a war – it is a genocide and the systematic erasure of a people,' he said. 'The Israeli leadership is not hiding its objectives; it is openly pursuing ethnic cleansing while the world watches. The UK must rise above platitudes and take concrete action to halt complicity in these crimes.' He also met Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament six months before the politician became Labour leader in 2015. Mr Birawi took legal action against a financial database after NatWest closed his account. He claimed the database had 'wrongly and without justification or evidence classified him on a terrorism list'. 'My legal team relied primarily on the fact that there has never been any legal sentence passed against me by any official authority in any state anywhere in the world, and that never have I been found to have been involved in any illegal acts which could be deemed within the scope of terrorism crimes,' Mr Birawi was quoted as saying at the time. He claimed the database had relied on lists prepared by Israel and inaccurate news websites 'likely driven by political motives and agendas not based on objective evidence which caused hurt and damage to me'. The company behind the database denied it had a terror list but gathered information in the public domain. If it was 'incorrect or updated', that was reflected in the database. Mr Birawi has been approached for comment. Drones surrounded the Madleen yacht and dropped a 'white irritant substance' before soldiers boarded around 2am BST, according to the group behind her mission. Ms Thunberg and 11 other passengers from the Madleen are being taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where the IDF has been ordered to show them a video of Hamas's October 7 attack. Then, they will be deported. The activists had set out to protest Israel's ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip, and its restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which had organised the voyage, said the activists were 'kidnapped by Israeli forces' while trying to deliver desperately needed aid to the territory. 'The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo—including baby formula, food and medical supplies—confiscated,' it said in a statement. Israel's foreign ministry portrayed the voyage as a public relations stunt, saying in a post on X that 'the 'selfie yacht' of the 'celebrities' is safely making its way to the shores of Israel.' 'The show is over,' it added. Footage shows Israeli military personnel handing out sandwiches and water to the activists, who were wearing orange life vests. Ms Thunberg, 22, a prominent climate campaigner, was joined by other pro-Gaza activists, including Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham, and European parliamentarian Rima Hassan. Israel's foreign ministry said their aid would be delivered to Gaza 'through real humanitarian channels.'
