Rest of Madleen crew released after being detained by Israel
On June 9, the vessel was intercepted by Israeli forces while sailing in international waters. The 12 volunteers on board - which included Swedish climate and social justice campaigner Greta Thunberg and French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan - were detained and taken to Israel, where they were asked to sign deportation consent forms.
READ MORE: At least 34 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers near aid site
While four people, including Thunberg, signed the forms and were subsequently deported, the remaining eight were detained in prison while waiting to appear before an Israeli tribunal.
Five more activists were deported by Israel on Thursday, but the remaining three had their deportation flights "abruptly cancelled" following the country's attack on Iran, which closed Israeli airports and grounded flights.
However, it has now been confirmed that the last three detained volunteers - Marco van Rennes (Netherlands), Pascal Maurieras (France) and Yanis Mhamdi (France) - were released from Israeli detention on Monday morning and have begun their return to their home countries via the Jordanian border.
Their respective embassies are now expected to facilitate their return home from Jordan.
In a statement on Monday afternoon, the FFC said: "This mission took place as Palestinians in Gaza face the most devastating campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide in recent history. Israel's nearly two-decade-long blockade of Gaza has been repeatedly found to violate international law, including in the 2009 United Nations Fact-Finding Mission Report and numerous legal analyses since.
"In 2024, the International Court of Justice found it plausible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and issued binding provisional measures to prevent such acts. Despite this, Israel's deadly blockade continues with full backing from the US, EU, and other complicit governments.
READ MORE: BBC coverage of Israel's war on Gaza shows 'pattern of bias', new report finds
"The Madleen mission is part of a 17-year-long civil society effort to confront, challenge, and break Israel's illegal blockade on Gaza. Based on precedent, we knew the risks – including attack, injury, and even death – were high. But we believe the cost of inaction is greater.
"Our goal is to break the siege – not symbolically, but materially and politically – which requires mobilizing not just civil society, but governments as well.
"In that sense, this mission has succeeded in reigniting global awareness, hope, and imagination in the power of people-to-people solidarity and direct action. We're not stopping – and we invite the world to join us."
The statement continued: "Our mission sought to break through media fatigue and remind the world: Gaza remains under illegal blockade. International silence is not neutrality – it is complicity.
"Palestinians have the right to live with dignity, freedom, and justice, and to receive aid – everything they need – without the control of their illegal Occupying Power."
READ MORE: UK must not look away from Gaza genocide amid Iran-Israel war - Amnesty
The FFC said it welcomed "the people's solidarity with our mission" and "above all, with the starved and besieged Palestinian people of Gaza".
The group added: "We ask you to keep mobilizing, watch for announcements of our next action against the blockade, and let your solidarity sail.
"We will continue sailing until the blockade is broken, the genocide ends, and Palestine is free – from the river to the sea."
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Daily Mirror
13 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Murder victim had skull smashed by hammer and body buried in concrete - and killers nearly got away
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'The ripple effects from this crime are still going on a decade later,' Anton, who retired in January after a career spanning more than 30 years and appears in the documentary, tells The Mirror. Christophe's love of travelling brought him to the UK, where he landed his airline job, but fell in with three men who went on to kill him. Unemployed Dominik Kocher, a German national who was married with a family, had welcomed Christophe when he moved into the rented home opposite him, where his cousin Manuel Wagner lived with Frenchman Bendou, a paranoid schizophrenic. Anton says Kocher left 'a trail of fraud behind him,' in Europe, before settling in Merseyside. Somehow, the experienced conman - who also lied about having cancer - persuaded all three men to let him run their finances. 'Kocher controlled everything to do with Bendou and Wagner,' explains Anton. 'He took their money and in exchange he did their cleaning and cooking. It was like they were his children.' 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'He has to persuade Wagner and Bendou, who is particularly vulnerable, to get involved in getting rid of Christophe. 'Kocher starts feeding them a narrative that Christophe is a clear and present danger to the family; that he's a spy who wants to get them out of the way so he would have access to Kocher's eldest daughter.' In April that year, Kocher bought three supermarket paring knives, together with bricks, cement and limestone chipping from a nearby builders' merchants. On the morning of Christophe's death, the three conspirators lured him downstairs to their specially prepared 'kill room' in the kitchen, which had tarpaulin laid down for the job. Wearing plastic overshoes to minimise blood spatter, they stabbed him as he desperately tried to fight them off. Anton explains: 'The knives were cheap and not up to the job, so Wagner produced a claw hammer he'd brought along. Those blows to Christophe's head were what killed him, there was catastrophic damage to the skull. 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The National
19 minutes ago
- The National
Israeli protesters go on strike and demand ceasefire
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Glasgow Times
29 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Protesters go on strike in Israel demanding ceasefire and hostage releases
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