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The Israeli navy intercepted a Gaza-bound aid ship on Monday and detained its high-profile passengers, including activist Greta Thunberg.
Israeli naval commandos boarded the Madleen, which was attempting to break the blockade of the Palestinian enclave, in international waters off the coast of Gaza, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organised the move.
The Israeli foreign ministry said the 12 passengers on board, including European parliament member Rima Hassan, were safe and unharmed as the ship was towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The passengers will be returned to their home countries, the ministry added.
“The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo — including baby formula, food and medical supplies — confiscated,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said in a statement.
The Madleen left Sicily over a week ago with the intention of breaking the Israeli blockade of the war-torn enclave, which has been in place for more than a decade after militant group Hamas seized control of the territory.
“Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard the Madleen,” Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney and Freedom Flotilla organiser, said in a statement, calling it a “blatant” violation of international law.
“These volunteers are not subject to Israeli jurisdiction and cannot be criminalised for delivering aid or challenging an illegal blockade,” Arraf added. “Their detention is arbitrary, unlawful and must end immediately.”
According to the UN and other international aid agencies, many of Gaza’s 2mn people are on the brink of starvation, with Israel imposing a full 11-week siege of the territory in March that has only recently been partially lifted.
The long-standing UN system for aid delivery has ground to a halt due to increased Israeli inspections and the breakdown in basic security inside the strip.
A US-backed scheme led by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private organisation, has been beset by turmoil since its launch two weeks ago. Several dozen Gazans were shot dead over the past week by Israeli forces while waiting for GHF aid distribution hubs to open, according to local health officials and other witness accounts.
Israeli officials had dismissed the “selfie yacht . . . of celebrities” as a media stunt, with the foreign ministry stating that the “single truckload of aid” on board the yacht would be transferred to Gaza through its own approved humanitarian channels.
Israel later released footage of its forces handing out water and sandwiches to the detained activists, clad in life jackets. “The show is over,” the Israeli foreign ministry said on social media platform X.
Israeli officials have argued that unfettered access to Gaza would allow weapons to be smuggled to Hamas, adding that the militant group attacked Israel through the sea on the morning of October 7 2023 during the assault that triggered the conflict. They have also said that, allowing even one ship to make it to Gaza, would lead to hundreds more attempts to break the blockade.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said on Monday that he instructed the military “to show” the Madleen passengers a “video of horrors” footage that was pieced together from the October 7 attack.
“It is appropriate that the antisemitic Greta and her fellow Hamas supporters see exactly who the Hamas terrorist organisation they came to support are, and for whom they are working,” Katz said. “The [Israeli military] will continue its war against the Hamas murderers in all its moral righteousness,” he said.
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