Early on Monday, Israeli forces enforced a long-standing embargo of the Palestinian territory that has been reinforced during the battle with Hamas by stopping an aid boat headed for Gaza that was carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists and diverting it to Israel.
The Israeli soldiers boarded the “Madleen,” which was trying to deliver supplies to Gaza, where almost 600 days of war and an 11-week Israeli embargo of all aid had further exacerbated the enclave’s starvation crisis, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC).
Those aboard the “Madleen” include climate campaigner Thunberg, “Game of Thrones” star Liam Cunningham, and French European Parliament member Rima Hassan.
“(The vessel) is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. The passengers are expected to return to their home countries,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a post on X early Monday local time.
It stated that the ship’s humanitarian supplies would be delivered to Gaza via approved routes. Later, it shared a video of what appeared to be Israeli military troops giving the activists, who were wearing orange life vests, sandwiches and drinks.
The activists had been “kidnapped by Israeli forces,” according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which had planned the journey to protest Israel’s embargo and military behaviour while delivering humanitarian goods to the Gaza Strip. The group also made public pre-recorded messages from the activists.
A video of the “Madleen” crew sitting side by side in orange life jackets while a soldier serves them sandwiches and water was uploaded by the foreign minister. Sitting close to the front of the group is Thunberg. In a previous Telegram post, the FFC claimed that the ship had been “under assault in international waters”.
“Quadcopters are surrounding the ship, spraying it with a white paint-like substance. Communications are jammed, and disturbing sounds are being played over the radio,” the FFC said.
Israel’s foreign ministry uploaded a video that seemed to show a Navy employee radioing the shop to inform it that the “maritime zone off the coast of Gaza was closed.”
Yasmin Acar, an activist, claimed that white material had been dropped on the boat in a livestreamed video from the boat. Later on, Acar was heard stating that it was having an impact on her eyes
Additionally, the FFC organisation shared a video on Telegram that showed crew members sitting inside the boat with their hands raised. The FFC started sharing pre-recorded video messages from Thunberg and other passengers on board after losing contact with the ship.
“If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel,” Thunberg said in her video.