Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 22, and several allies were taken into Israeli custody in international waters early Monday while attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, which faces a food crisis amid Hamas’s ongoing war with Israel.
“The ‘selfie yacht’ of the ‘celebrities’ is safely making its way to the shores of Israel,” the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) wrote in a post on the social platform X. “The passengers are expected to return to their home countries.”
Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament, also was among the passengers on the aid ship taken into custody.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which organized the Madleen ship to bring supplies to Gaza with Thunberg and others, said in a news release that the vessel was “attacked/forcibly intercepted by the Israeli military” and that “its unarmed civilian crew [was] abducted, and its life-saving cargo — including baby formula, food and medical supplies — confiscated.”
“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 a pre-recorded video the FFC released.
But the MFA also posted video and photos on social media of Israeli soldiers handing out sandwiches and bottles of water to Thunberg and other flotilla riders.
Israel had vowed to stop the vessel from reaching Gaza, frequently dismissing Madleen as being a “selfie yacht” for “celebrities,” and posted video online of a warning signal that it said was issued to the flotilla before Monday’s interception.
The MFA said it had legal authority to capture the Madleen because the maritime zone off the coast of Gaza is closed to unauthorized vessels under a legal naval blockade.
“All the passengers of the ‘selfie yacht’ are safe and unharmed,” the MFA wrote in an update Monday, accusing Thunberg and others of staging a publicity stunt.
“Greta Thunberg is currently on her way to Israel, safe and in good spirits,” the administration added.
The FFC, Thunberg and others have argued that Israeli forces were not allowing enough humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, prompting their mission.
The International Food Policy Research Institute reported two weeks ago that the 2 million residents of the Gaza Strip are facing a severe food crisis as the war stretches more than a year and a half after Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israeli civilians. The leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada released a joint statement last month that deemed the “level of human suffering” in Gaza “intolerable.”
The Israeli government in an update on the Madleen’s capture wrote that 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.”
“While Greta and others attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity — and which included less than a single truckload of aid — more than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks, and in addition, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed close to 11 million meals directly to civilians in Gaza,” the MFA wrote. “There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip — they do not involve Instagram selfies.”
