A boat seized by Israel as it tried to break the blockade on Gaza was being towed into an Israeli port after sunset on Monday, with the crew of activists including Greta Thunberg expected to be held there in advance of deportation hearings.
The UK-flagged yacht Madleen, operated by the non-profit Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), was seized more than 160km from the Gaza coast by Israeli military personnel enforcing a longstanding blockade of the Palestinian territory that has been tightened during the Israel-Hamas war.
The ship was brought to the port of Ashdod in Israel where the crew was to be held ahead of deportation and its symbolic cargo of humanitarian aid seized.
Thunberg and the other 11 members of the Madleen crew, including the French MEP Rima Hassan and the Al Jazeera journalist Omar Faiad, have been out of contact since Israeli forces took control of the boat in the early hours of Monday morning.
They had set out from Sicily on June 1st to protest against Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip and its restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid.
Israel had repeatedly warned that the ship would not be allowed to breach its maritime blockade.
The FFC claimed the crew had been “kidnapped” and the seizure of the Madleen was illegal as it took place in international waters. “The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo – including baby formula, food and medical supplies – confiscated,“ it said.
Huwaida Arraf, human rights lawyer and FFC organiser, said: “Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard the Madleen.
“This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the ICJ’s [International Court of Justice’s] binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.
“These volunteers are not subject to Israeli jurisdiction and cannot be criminalised for delivering aid or challenging an illegal blockade – their detention is arbitrary, unlawful, and must end immediately.”
UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese called for the crew to be released “immediately”.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said he had instructed that upon the boat’s arrival at Ashdod port, the activists would be shown videos of atrocities committed during the October 7th, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which triggered the Gaza war. About 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and 250 taken to Gaza, where 55 are still held hostage.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer described the cargo on the Gaza aid boat as “meagre”.
Labelling the ship as a “selfie yacht”, he claimed less than a truck’s worth of aid was on board, but said that it would be sent to Gaza.
Footage has been circulated of what appeared to be Israeli military personnel handing out sandwiches and water to the activists, who were wearing orange life vests.
“I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible,” Ms Thunberg said in a pre-recorded message released after the ship was halted.
Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry said Israeli forces and allied local gunmen fired toward a crowd heading to an Israeli and US supported food distribution centre in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 14 people.
The Israeli military, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, recently acknowledged supporting local armed groups opposed to Hamas.
Since 2008, multiple flotillas have been launched to challenge the 18-year Gaza blockade which has severely limited Palestinian movement and access to goods.
Madleen’s sister ship Conscience was attacked by drones in May while sailing in international waters off Malta and forced to abandon its voyage to Gaza. The group blamed Israel for the attack.
In a post on X on Monday, the Israeli foreign ministry accused Ms Thunberg and the crew of attempting “to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity” rather than deliver food as the ship carried “less than a single truckload of aid”.
The ministry said: “More than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks, and in addition, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation [GHF] has distributed close to 11 million meals directly to civilians in Gaza.”
The UN says 500-600 aid trucks at day are needed to meet the food and medical needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians.
Gaza’s government media office reported on Sunday that the toll from Israeli shooting incidents during two weeks of aid deliveries at Israeli-backed GHF sites had risen to 125 dead, 736 injured and nine missing. The GHF has been boycotted by UN and international aid agencies which argue it does not conform to humanitarian principals, and its distribution system is chaotic.
The Israeli blockade is set to face another challenge on June 15th when the Global March to Gaza, a movement involving people from approximately 50 countries, plans to gather peacefully at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the enclave. Marchers will call on Israel to end its siege of Gaza and allow the free flow of humanitarian aid.
Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s Palestinian population.
Israel sealed Gaza off from all aid in the early days of the war ignited by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7th, 2023, but later relented under US pressure.
In early March, shortly before Israel ended a ceasefire with Hamas, the country again blocked all imports, including food, fuel and medicine. – Additional reporting: Guardian
