The organisers of a Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and other activists said Israeli forces intercepted the vessel on Monday (Jun 9), after Israel vowed to prevent it from reaching the Palestinian territory.
AFP lost contact with the activists onboard early Monday morning after the organisers said alarms sounded and life jackets were being prepared for a possible interception.
“Connection has been lost on the ‘Madleen’. Israeli army have boarded the vessel”, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the activist group operating the vessel, posted on Telegram.
It added that the passengers had been “kidnapped” by Israeli forces.
The activist group posted a series of pre-recorded videos from those onboard, including one from Thunberg.
“If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters,” she said.
Mahmud Abu-Odeh, a Germany-based press officer with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, told AFP that “the activists seemed to be arrested”.
The British-flagged yacht Madleen, which is operated by FFC, was aiming to deliver a symbolic amount of aid to Gaza later on Monday and raise international awareness of the humanitarian crisis there.
Among the 12-strong crew are Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered Israel’s army to stop the ship from reaching Gaza or violating a blockade he described as needed to prevent Palestinian militants from importing weapons.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the activists’ boat was instructed to change course as it approached “a restricted area” on early Monday. About an hour later, it said the boat was being towed to Israeli shores.
“The passengers are expected to return to their home countries,” the ministry wrote on social media.
“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,” it added.
Israel imposed a naval blockade on the coastal enclave after Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
The blockade has remained in place through multiple conflicts, including the current war, which began after a Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, that killed more than 1,200 people, according to an Israeli tally.
Gaza’s health ministry says over 54,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign. The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents are facing famine.
