Israeli forces seized control of a charity vessel aiming to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip and detained its crew of 12 including activist Greta Thunberg, officials said.
The British-flagged yacht Madleen, which is operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), was aiming to deliver a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid, including rice and baby formula, to Gaza later on Monday and raise international awareness of the humanitarian crisis there.
However, the boat was intercepted in the early hours of Monday before it could reach Gaza, the FFC said on its Telegram account.
Israel had vowed to prevent the vessel from reaching Gaza, saying its military would use “any means necessary” to stop it from breaching a naval blockade.
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Among the 12-strong crew were Swedish climate campaigner Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
“The crew of the Freedom Flotilla was arrested by the Israeli military in international waters around 2 am,” Hassan posted on X.
Before their arrest, crew aboard the FFC said that quadcopters surrounded the aid ship and sprayed it with a “white liquid”.
Huwaida Arraf, the co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement that is supporting the flotilla, told Al Jazeera that some people “reported that their eyes were burning.”
“Before that, they were also approached by vessels in a very threatening manner… The last we saw, were able to hear from them, they were surrounded… by Israeli naval commandos and it looked like the commandos were about to take over the vessel.”
Contact with the activists was soon last and the crew were ordered to turn of their phones.
A photograph showed the crew seated on the boat, all wearing life jackets, with their hands in the air.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed the detention of the activists and stated that they were all safe and had been provided with sandwiches and water.
“The show is over,” the ministry wrote on X.
“If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped.”
Twelve international activists, including Greta Thunberg, recorded videos before being kidnapped by Israeli forces in international waters while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza as part of a Freedom Flotilla.… pic.twitter.com/rsrsYNndsJ
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) June 9, 2025
In a statement, the FFC accused Israel of “forcibly intercepting” the Madleen and acting with “total impunity.”
It said in a statement the ship was “unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo – including baby formula, food and medical supplies – confiscated.”
In a statement, the Palestinian rights organisation Al-Haq strongly condemned Israel’s “unlawful interception” of the Madleen in international waters, calling for the “immediate release of all those detained.”
“Israel has no legal authority to restrict access to Palestine, since such is within the exclusive right of the Palestinian people,” the Ramallah-based rights organisation said in a statement.
“As people of conscience seek to demonstrate solidarity with and to provide vital support for the Palestinians of Gaza, third states must urgently ensure both that they are protected from the illegal violence of the Israeli state.”
FFC-organised ships have been attempting to break Israel’s 18-year land, sea and naval blockade on the Gaza Strip for nearly two decades.
In 2010, the Mavi Marmara flotilla mission was attacked by Israeli forces, who boarded the ship and killed ten activists.
And last month, another vessel organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the Conscience, failed to continue its journey after being struck by two drones near Maltese waters.
Israel had vowed to prevent the vessel from reaching Gaza, saying its military would use “any means necessary” to stop it from breaching a naval blockade.
Israel;s defense minister, Israel Katz, said on Sunday that he had instructed the country’s military to prevent the vessel from reaching Gaza.
In a statement, he said, “To Greta the antisemite and her friends, propagandists for Hamas — I say clearly: You would do well to turn back, because you won’t get to Gaza. Israel will act against any attempt to breach the blockade or aid terrorist organisations by sea, air or land.”
Speaking to Middle East Eye from the aid boat on Tuesday, Thunberg said that governments had failed Palestinians, and so it fell “on us to step up and be the adults in the room.”
“We cannot sit by and allow this to happen. We are watching… a genocide happening, following decades and decades of systematic oppression, ethnic cleansing, occupation,” she said.
“We are just human beings, very concerned about what’s happening, and do not accept what is going on.”
Israel, with Egypt’s help, imposed a complete blockade on all humanitarian aid to Gaza for 11 weeks, before partially lifting it on 19 May to allow very limited United Nations aid deliveries, and a US-backed scheme widely panned as unworkable.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, urged other boats on Sunday to challenge the Gaza blockade.
“Madleen’s journey may have ended, but the mission isn’t over. Every Mediterranean port must send boats with aid & solidarity to Gaza,” she wrote on X.
Since reneging on the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces have killed at least 4,000 people in attacks targeting tents, hospitals and school-turned-shelters.
According to Palestinian health and government officials, at least 54,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, including more than 28,000 women and girls.
The figure also includes at least 1,400 health sector professionals, 280 UN aid workers – the highest staff death toll in UN history – and nearly 190 journalists, the highest number of media workers killed in conflict since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began recording data in 1992.
