Israeli military tows Thunberg aid ship to Ashdod, passengers to be deported
AFP
The crew of the Madleen yacht with arms raised as the IDF reportedly boards the vessel.
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AFP
Israel’s military is towing an aid ship Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and other activists to Israel after a dramatic few hours during which commandos boarded the ship and cut its communications.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry posted a video on X showing the detained activists being given food and water, and said they were being taken to the port of Ashdod.
“All the passengers of the ‘selfie yacht’ are safe and unharmed. They were provided with sandwiches and water. The show is over,” the ministry said on X.
Officials said the activists would be deported, and the “tiny amount of aid” the ship was carrying would be sent to Gaza.
The ministry also said Ms Thunberg and her fellow activists “attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity.”
The boat was carrying “less than a single truckload of aid,” it said, adding that “more than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza.
“There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip — they do not involve Instagram selfies. 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,” the ministry said.
The Madleen was boarded after the Israeli navy ordered it to change its course away from Israeli waters.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition campaign group posted a video of the crew sitting in lifejackets with their hands up, on Instagram, saying: “Connection has been lost.”
The activists said their communications had been jammed and quadcopters were hovering over the boat, spraying a white “paintlike” substance.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which had organised the voyage to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and protest Israel’s blockade and wartime conduct, said the activists had been “kidnapped by Israeli forces” and released prerecorded messages from them.
In Ms Thunberg’s video, she said: “If you see this video we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel,” asking friends and family to pressure the Swedish government to urge Israel to release her and her comrades.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry earlier posted a video of a soldier on board a military speed boat near the Madleen telling the crew over a loudspeaker: “The maritime zone near the coast of Gaza is closed to naval traffic as part of a legal naval blockade.” The soldier added that humanitarian aid could be delivered to Gaza via Ashdod.
The Foreign Ministry said the navy “has instructed the ‘selfie yacht’ to change its course due to its approach toward a restricted area.”
Activists on board the ship posted a video of a drone hovering overhead, with one activist saying “Please take cover everyone.”
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla said quadcopters were “spraying (the Madleen) with a white paint-like substance”.
“Communications are jammed and disturbing sounds are being played over the radio,” the flotilla said in a post on Instagram.
Before the confrontation, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine tweeted that five speedboats had surrounded the ship, which Jerusalem had vowed to block from reaching Gaza.
The crew and passengers were told to remain seated with their passports and life jackets on, she reported.
Ms Albanese tweeted: “I am with the flotilla online. They have just been reached by the Israel speedboats – 5 vessels circling the flotilla. The captain is instructing the team to stay calm and seated, with their passports and life jackets on. I hear them speaking with Israeli soldiers as I type … telling they are carrying humanitarian aid and go in peace. For the time being they are just circled. I am with them, recording everything.”
Minutes later, Ms Albanese posted on X: “I just spoke again with the Flotilla. All looks calm and safe now. Speedboats watching; but the flotilla continues its sailing. It will be a long night.”
The fast-moving scenario came after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the IDF “to act to stop the hate-flotilla ‘Madleen’ from reaching the shores of Gaza – and to take any means necessary to that end.”
“To the antisemitic Greta and her friends, I say clearly: You should turn back, because you will not reach Gaza,” he added, calling the activists “Hamas propaganda mouthpieces”.
The Madleen, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Italy on June 1 with the aim of delivering aid and challenging the Israeli blockade, which has been in place for years even before the Israel-Hamas war since October 2023.
An Israeli security source told Israel’s Maariv website that the IDF’s naval unit Shayetet 13 and the Israeli Navy would board the vessel if necessary.
“It’s a small and low-profile sailboat with a small auxiliary engine, so it sails slowly. We’ll have no problem boarding it once it enters Israeli waters.” the source said.
“We are not armed. There is only humanitarian aid,” European Parliament member Rima Hassan told AFP from the boat, vowing to “stay mobilised until the last minute”.
The group posted on Instagram that it “will not be intimidated.”
“The Madleen is a peaceful civilian vessel, unarmed and sailing in international waters with humanitarian aid and human rights defenders. This mission is independent, guided only by conscience and solidarity with Gaza,” the crew members wrote.
Greta Thunberg speaks to reporters before departing on the aid ship Madleen for Gaza. Picture: AP.
