Israel intercepts flotilla ship carrying aid to Gaza
The dozen activists who were traveling, including Greta Thunberg, claim they have been "kidnapped."
Barcelona"I'm from Sweden. If you see this video, we are being intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupation forces": This is the message that Greta Thunberg made public this morning, when the ship Madleen of the Freedom Flotilla The Israeli army intercepted the vessel and transported it to the port of Ashdod. The vessel was traveling to Gaza and was carrying food and humanitarian aid. Benjamin Netanyahu's government had already ordered the ship, which was carrying eleven activists in addition to Thunberg, to be detained before it reached its destination.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has summoned the Israeli chargé d'affaires in Madrid to protest the seizure of the ship. In fact, one of the activists on the crew is Spanish, and the Foreign Ministry claims to be in contact with the victim, his family, and the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and that it is exercising "the corresponding consular protection."
In a tweet on X, the Israeli ministry assured that Greta Thunberg "is on her way to Israel, safe and in good spirits." Several of the activists who were traveling on the ship Madleen They managed to show some of the moments in which Israel has "kidnapped" them, and denounced that intercepting them in international waters is considered a war crime, as is not allowing humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip.
One of the activists on board the ship and French Member of the European Parliament, Rima Hassan, also warned on her X account that they would soon be intercepted by the Israeli army: "When they stop hearing from us, it will mean that our internet has been cut off and that Israel is preparing to attack us." Yasemin Acar, another crew member and activist, explained during a Telegram connection from the ship: "There have been drones above us for five days, but if they want to monitor us, no problem, we are only carrying food and aid; the only ones carrying weapons are the agents of the Israeli regime." The Madleen It was carrying a symbolic amount of aid, including rice and baby formula.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz congratulated the army for the "swift and secure takeover" of the Madleen, and has stated that, once they arrive in Israel, they will show the activists videos of the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. "It is fitting that anti-Semite Greta Thunberg and her Hamas colleagues see exactly who they are working for," he said in a statement.
An obstacle course
The ship is operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and was intended to circumvent the blockade imposed on Gaza and deliver aid to the Gazans. The mission had to be delayed when The first boat the activists intended to travel on was attacked with missiles by the Israeli army. when he was in international waters near Malta. Madleen and set sail from Sicily on June 6.
Just this weekend, the ship also briefly interrupted its journey to attend to a boat they had encountered with migrants trying to reach Europe. Greta Thunberg and Yasemin Acar have made another connection to the networks to explain that agents of the Libyan coast guard had taken the migrants "posing as Egyptian guards" to, in reality, take them to Libya, "something that is illegal, because from Libya there is no.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed ten people when they attacked a Turkish boat, the MV Mavi Marmara, who was leading a small flotilla.
