Latest news with #aidmission
New York Times
27-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Israel Intercepts Gaza-Bound Ship of Activists and Aid
The Israeli navy intercepted a ship aiming to bring aid to Gaza this weekend, Israeli officials and pro-Palestinian activists said, in at least the third case this year in which a vessel has been stopped while challenging Israel's naval blockade of the enclave. The ship was rerouted to Israel and all its passengers were safe, Israel's foreign ministry said in a statement early Sunday. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an activist group, said it had organized the mission by the ship, which it called the Handala, to aid a population in Gaza facing rising starvation. The Israeli foreign ministry called the ship the Navarn, using another name associated with the vessel. The ship was roughly 40 nautical miles from Gaza when it was intercepted, according to a statement by the activist group, which opposes the nearly two-decade-old naval blockade of Gaza. Twenty-one activists from 12 countries were on board, the group said, adding that the ship carried supplies like baby formula, diapers, food and medicine from Italy, from where it set sail last week. One of those aboard was a French member of the European Parliament, Emma Fourreau, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition's website. The group's efforts to reach Gaza by sea have been repeatedly thwarted. In May, a Gaza-bound aid ship called Conscience was crippled by explosions and an ensuing fire, stopping the mission off the coast of Malta. In June, Israel intercepted the coalition's second effort, the Madleen, whose passengers included the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and another French member of the European Parliament, Rima Hassan. After the latest vessel was stopped, the coalition described the Israeli navy's actions as a 'violation of international maritime law.' Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza, with Egypt's help, after the Islamic militant group Hamas took control over the coastal strip in 2007. Israeli officials say the measure was necessary to prevent the smuggling of weapons into the territory. Since Hamas led the October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the current war in Gaza, living conditions in the territory have steadily deteriorated, and Israel has tightly controlled the flow of aid into the territory by land, sea and air. Its restrictions have drawn condemnation from many nations and rights groups, and on Saturday night the Israeli military announced that it would revive the practice of dropping aid from airplanes, and make it easier for aid convoys to move through Gaza by land. Before the ship was captured, the activist coalition published a statement saying that two vessels believed to be operated by the Israeli military were nearby. At that point, the ship altered its course toward the Egyptian coast, the statement said.
The Independent
15-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Mea culpa: Showboating
Greta Thunberg's trip to Israel might have ended in an unorthodox (for her) flight home, but it started on a boat. She was inbound on an aid mission organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which few think was ever intended to complete its delivery. The story wasn't straightforward and we added to the confusion by describing the vessel carrying Greta as a flotilla. As Iain Boyd puts it, one boat doth not a flotilla make. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition started in 2010 as a group of ships aiming to break an Israeli naval blockade on Gaza. They've kept the name all these years, but they happened to send just one boat this time. The activists shouldn't bear the blame for the confusion over their title. We could have named the group correctly and made it clear to readers that there was only one boat involved. Drinking it in: The stylish poet and author Joelle Taylor made our Pride list this year, so we dedicated part of her paragraph to a flattering account of her appearance. Eventually. At first, we said she wears sharp tweed suits and has perfectly quaffed hair. Quaffed, referring to having drunk something, usually alcoholic, makes no sense here. We meant coiffed, as we later amended it. Nuclear error: An editorial confused Three Mile Island, site of a 1979 nuclear accident, with Six Mile Bottom, a hamlet near Cambridge. Pile-on: We said 'Jason Isaacs has thrown his support onto Tom Felton' after the latter Harry Potter actor was criticised for his comments on JK Rowling's transphobic views. One usually throws one's support behind someone, to back them up when they are faced with difficulty. However, throwing support onto someone sounds like it would only add to their burden. Two for one: Regarding a development in the world of football, we said, 'the new Club World Cup will quickly become a bi-annual tournament.' How often will that be, then? The Independent 's style guide advises against using bi-annual, along with bi-monthly and bi-weekly, due to confusion over the frequency they are intended to describe. It's advised that we instead write out what we mean except in the case of something happening every other year, where we can use biennial. Thanks to Philip Nalpanis for pulling us up on this one. If I had to guess how often we make this mistake, I might say twice a week. Oval and out: Philip also noticed a strange bit of wordplay in a picture caption on our story about Elon Musk conceding that he went too far when he, er, accused the president of being a paedophile. We ran a photo of Musk and Donald Trump's parting embrace in the Oval Office (astonishingly, taken barely a fortnight ago) with the caption: 'Just like starting oval.' I've said before that the best puns bring together two related ideas in a play on a recognisable phrase. This pun does that, but it's still not very good. It's also been said before that we who write this column are guilty of the very things we criticise.
Telegraph
03-06-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Trump attacks BBC over Gaza misreporting
The White House has launched an attack on the BBC and its coverage of a chaotic aid mission in Gaza, accusing the broadcaster of taking Hamas's account as 'total truth'. On Tuesday, Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump's press secretary, was asked about reports that Israeli security forces had shot Palestinians dead as they waited for food distribution. Ms Leavitt said US officials were trying to confirm what had happened before pivoting to criticise the BBC. 'Unfortunately, unlike some in the media, we don't take the word of Hamas with total truth,' she said. 'We like to look into it when they speak … unlike the BBC.' She brandished a printout of stories published on the BBC website a day earlier, and described how the headlines changed from claiming an Israeli tank had killed 26 people, to 21 people, to that gunfire had killed 31. 'And then, oh, wait, they had to correct and take down their entire story, saying we reviewed the footage and couldn't find any evidence of anything,' she said. 'So we're going to look into reports before we confirm them from this podium or before we take action. And I suggest that journalists who actually care about truth do the same to reduce the amount of misinformation that's going around the globe.' BBC Attempt 1: "Israeli tanks kill 26." BBC Attempt 2: "Israeli tanks kill 31." BBC Attempt 3: "Israeli gunfire kills 31." BBC Attempt 4: "Red Cross says 21 people killed in aid incident." BBC Attempt 5: "We reviewed the footage and couldn't find any evidence of anything." — Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) June 2, 2025 The BBC later issued a clarification on the story: Yesterday BBC and others (CNN, AP, Reuters, etc) claimed that 31 were killed at a GHF aid distribution center in Gaza. Hours after it was denied by everyone, the bold headlines stayed on their websites, spreading H×mas lies. Only today BBC retracted the story 👇 — Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) June 2, 2025 A US and Israeli-backed group began distributing aid in Gaza last week, but its distribution point descended into chaos after it was overrun by thousands of Palestinians. Health officials in Hamas-run Gaza say at least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded at a food distribution site on Tuesday. Israel's international reputation stands on a knife-edge due to its expanded military offensive in Gaza and the new controversial aid distribution system. Israel insists that by setting up purpose-built distribution hubs in the largely flattened southern area city of Rafah, it is both fulfilling its humanitarian commitments and preventing Hamas from stealing the aid. However, the UN and other NGOs are distancing themselves from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the American company set up to distribute the aid, because they say it violates humanitarian principles by forcing civilians to walk long and dangerous journeys to receive it. They also allege that it 'politicises' aid by forcing the population into the south and thus making it easier for the IDF to conduct its new 'seize, hold and demolish' strategy elsewhere. Some have even suggested it sets the condition for the realisation of Mr Trump's controversial Gaza 'riviera' vision, which envisages the forcible displacement of the Palestinians from the territory. There have now been three shooting events which implicate the IDF. They have resulted in the deaths of more than 50 civilians. Witnesses have alleged sniper fire and shelling, with corpses lining the road to the new aid hubs. The next few days are seen as crucial in saving the credibility of the project – for which the US is Israel's only major backer – and by extension the Jewish state's continued war against Hamas. The BBC has been approached for comment.
