The Israeli navy has intercepted the ship carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists who were staging a protest against Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
The interception came early Monday morning, a week after the Madleen set sail from Sicily, and followed vows by the Israeli government — which derided the group as the “selfie yacht” — not to allow the ship to reach Gaza.
Shortly after their arrests, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the nonprofit that has staged dozens of efforts to reach Gaza to protest Israel, posted prerecorded videos on X showing the crew members saying that they had been “kidnapped.” They called on their home governments to put pressure on Israel to release them.
For many, pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian voices alike, the videos and language echoed the plight of the Israeli hostages in Gaza. Hamas and other groups took more than 250 hostages on Oct. 7, 2023, and dozens remain in Gaza, including 20 who are thought to remain alive.
Five prominent pro-Palestinian Instagram accounts, with well over 1 million followers among them, appeared to further the comparison with a joint post that said, in all-caps, “Release the hostages now” — followed by a list of the passengers on the Madleen.
Israel released its own footage after the raid at sea, showing an officer offering Thunberg bread. Israeli officials said the boat and its occupants would be taken to the port of Ashdod, where the aid it carried would be distributed through regular aid channels and the activists would be deported to their home countries. The boat carried activists from at least half a dozen countries, including Sweden, France and Spain.
Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said he had instructed the army to screen a 47-minute film about the atrocities committed by Hamas when it invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, inaugurating the current war in Gaza.
“It is appropriate that the antisemitic Greta and her fellow Hamas supporters see exactly who the Hamas terrorist organization they came to support and for whom they work is, what atrocities they committed against women, the elderly, and children, and against whom Israel is fighting to defend itself,” Katz tweeted.
The flotilla comes shortly after aid distribution in Gaza resumed after a two-month blockade by the Israeli army, during which no aid entered the Palestinian enclave. A new joint U.S.-Israeli aid distribution organization has been plagued by chaos, violence, interruptions and criticism since it launched last month. Israeli officials said early Monday that the foundation had nonetheless served 11 million meals in Gaza during that period.
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