Israeli forces intercept Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg, divert it
An aid boat carrying international activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Rima Hassan, was intercepted by Israeli forces in the early hours of Monday after it attempted to breach the naval blockade of Gaza.
The vessel, a British-flagged yacht named Madleen, was part of a mission organised by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC). It had set sail from Sicily on June 6 and was aiming to reach the Gaza Strip by later today before being boarded by Israeli troops, the group said in a statement on Telegram.
Taking to micro-blogging site X, Hassan claimed that all the crew of the Freedom Flotilla boat were arrested by the Israeli Army in international waters around 2 am.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry posted a video on X showing Israeli forces taking control of the boat and providing refreshments to the crew members who were donning life jackets. “The yacht, with its 12-person crew, was carrying a symbolic shipment of humanitarian aid, including rice and baby formula,” the X post read.
In a statement on social media, the ministry downplayed the mission, calling it a “media provocation” involving a “selfie yacht” of ‘celebrities’. It said the aid aboard was “less than a single truckload” and claimed most of it had been consumed by the activists.
The ministry also said that the remainder aid would be forwarded to Gaza through established humanitarian channels.
It further noted that over 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel in the past two weeks and that nearly 11 million meals have been distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The interception is the latest in a series of efforts by international civil society groups to draw attention to the ongoing “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza, where an Israeli naval blockade has been in place for years. The FFC has long criticised the blockade as a form of collective punishment and called for unimpeded humanitarian access.
After enforcing a full blockade for over two and a half months in a bid to pressure Hamas, Israel began permitting limited humanitarian aid into Gaza last month. However, relief organisations have cautioned that the region remains on the brink of famine unless the siege is fully lifted and military operations are halted.
A previous maritime aid attempt by the Freedom Flotilla last month ended in failure after one of its vessels came under drone attack in international waters near Malta. The group accused Israel of orchestrating the strike, which left the front section of the ship badly damaged.
Since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, both Israel and Egypt have enforced varying levels of blockade on the coastal enclave. Critics say the restrictions, which severely limit movement and goods, amount to collective punishment for Gaza’s population of about two million.
