The Israeli military on the night of 9 June took control of the ship Madeleen, which was heading to the coast of the Gaza Strip, allegedly with a cargo of humanitarian aid.
According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the ship was sent to an Israeli port, upon arrival all 12 pro-Palestinian activists on board will be sent to their home countries.
Among the ship’s passengers is Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has gained notoriety for organising actions against climate change. She has recently been active in condemning Israel’s policies, calling its actions in the Gaza Strip “genocide.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the ship with Thunberg on board a “celebrity selfie boat,” noting that humanitarian aid is now flowing into Gaza in much larger quantities than the activists were taking there.
Israeli military boats approached the boat and began calling on it through loudspeakers to change course. After this failed to happen, Israeli military sailors boarded. Activists on board claim the ship was detained in international waters. Thunberg recorded an appeal calling, among other things, on the Swedish authorities to quickly secure the release of the detainees. Israel’s Foreign Ministry, in turn, published a photo of her, writing that she was “safe and in good spirits.”
The Hamas group, recognised as a terrorist in the US and EU, against which Israel is conducting a military operation in Gaza, called Israel’s taking control of the so-called Freedom Flotilla ship “state terrorism”. Israeli Defence Minister Yisrael Katz said that upon arrival in Ashdod it would be appropriate to show activists footage of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that killed more than a thousand people.
The ship Madleen, part of the international coalition Freedom Flotilla, left the Italian port of riding on the coast of Sicily on 1 June and entered Egyptian territorial waters on Saturday, approaching Gaza. The stated purpose of the mission is to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of the Gaza Strip and attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Palestinian enclave.
Israeli authorities claim that the blockade of Gaza is aimed at preventing the supply of weapons to Hamas.