Israel yesterday intercepted a Gaza-bound aid boat, preventing the activists onboard, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, from reaching the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The Madleen departed from Italy on June 1 aiming to bring awareness to food shortages in Gaza, which the UN has called the “hungriest place on Earth.” After 21 months of war, the UN has warned the territory’s entire population is at risk of famine.
Israeli forces “forcibly intercepted” the vessel in international waters as it was approaching Gaza, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said in a statement.
Photo: Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affair via X / Reuters
“If you see this video we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters,” Thunberg said in a prerecorded video shared by the coalition.
The Palestinian group Hamas condemned the diversion, saying in a statement that the boat was being taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
The Israeli government had vowed to prevent the “unauthorized” ship from breaching the naval blockade of Gaza, urging it to turn back.
Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz on Sunday said that the blockade, in place since years before the Israel-Hamas war, was needed to prevent Palestinian militants from importing weapons.
After diverting the boat, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a picture of the activists all in orange life jackets being offered water and sandwiches.
“All the passengers of the ‘selfie yacht’ are safe and unharmed,” the ministry wrote on social media, adding that it expected the activists to return to their home nations.
“The tiny amount of aid that was on the yacht and not consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels,” it added.
Israel is facing mounting international pressure to allow more aid into Gaza to alleviate widespread shortages of food and basic supplies.
It has allowed humanitarian deliveries to resume after barring them for more than two months and began working with the newly formed, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but humanitarian agencies have criticized the foundation and the UN refuses to work with it, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality.
Dozens of people have been killed near foundation distribution points since late last month, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency.
It said Israeli attacks on Sunday killed at least 10 people, including five civilians hit by gunfire near an aid distribution center.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal and witnesses said the civilians had been heading to a site west of Rafah in southern Gaza, run by the US-backed foundation.
Witness Abdallah Nour al-Din said that “people started gathering in the al-Alam area of Rafah” in the early morning.
“After about an hour and a half, hundreds moved toward the site and the army opened fire,” he said.
The Israeli military said it fired on people who “continued advancing in a way that endangered the soldiers,” despite warnings.
At a charity kitchen in Gaza City, displaced Palestinian Umm Ghassan said that she had been unable to collect aid from a foundation site “because there were so many people, and there was a lot of shooting. I was afraid to go in, but there were people who risked their lives for their children and families.”
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