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ARTICLE VIEW:
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7 min read
Seized Gaza aid ship docks in Israel with Greta Thunberg aboard
By Kareem Khadder, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Abeer Salman, Helen Regan, Dana
Karni and Catherine Nicholls, CNN
Updated:
6:48 PM EDT, Mon June 9, 2025
Source: CNN
The detained crew of the that was intercepted by Israel on Monday
morning docked in the Israeli port of Ashdod Monday evening, according
to Israel’s foreign ministry.
Those on board the Madleen aid ship, including Sweden’s Greta
Thunberg and other prominent activists, underwent medical examinations
on Monday evening, the foreign ministry said.
On arrival to Ashdod, the activists were taken to a room to be shown a
screening of the “horror film documenting the October 7 massacre”
carried out by Hamas, according to Israeli defense minister Israel
Katz.
“When they saw what it was about, they refused to continue
watching,” Katz claimed.
Katz accused Greta and the rest of the ship’s crew of ignoring Hamas
atrocities by “closing their eyes to the truth.”
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said the Israeli military had
“attacked” and “unlawfully boarded” the Madleen, which was
attempting to deliver aid to Gaza – where more than 600 days of war,
and an 11-week Israeli blockade of all aid, has pushed the enclave’s
2.1 million people deeper into .
Earlier on Monday, a source familiar with the matter told CNN that
Israel planned to bring the detained activists to Ashdod port and then
through a “quick deportation process” via Ben-Gurion Airport.
The ministry also previously posted a video showing members of the
Madleen crew sitting side by side wearing orange life jackets while a
solider offered them bottled water and plastic-wrapped sandwiches.
Thunberg can be seen sitting near the front of the group.
The FFC had earlier said the ship had come “under assault in
international waters” in a Telegram post.
“Quadcopters are surrounding the ship, spraying it with a white
paint-like substance. Communications are jammed, and disturbing sounds
are being played over the radio,” the FFC said. A video posted by
Israel’s foreign ministry appeared to show a Navy staffer sending a
radio message to the vessel saying the “maritime zone off the coast
of Gaza was closed.”
In a video livestreamed from the boat, activist Yasemin Acar showed a
white substance on the deck, saying it had been dropped on the vessel.
Acar was later heard saying it was affecting her eyes.
The FFC group also posted a video on Telegram, showing members of the
crew sitting inside the boat with their hands in the air.
After losing communication with the vessel, the FFC began posting
pre-recorded video messages from Thunberg and others onboard. “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 her video.
Later Monday, US President Donald Trump called Thunberg a “strange”
and “young, angry person,” telling a roundtable event at the White
House that he thinks she “has to go to an anger management class.”
“That’s my primary recommendation for her,” Trump said. “Israel
has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg.”
In a statement, the FFC said Israel had acted with “total impunity”
and that the vessel’s cargo, which included baby formula, food and
medical supplies was “confiscated.” Israel said it would transfer
the goods to Gaza through humanitarian channels.
“Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers
aboard the Madleen,” said Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney and
Freedom Flotilla organizer. “This seizure blatantly violates
international law and defies the (International Court of Justice’s)
binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.”
Amnesty International also condemned the detention of the activists.
“The operation of intercepting and blocking the Madleen in the middle
of the night and in international waters violates international law and
put the safety of those on the boat at risk,” Agnès Callamard,
Amnesty International’s secretary general, said in a statement.
In a statement to CNN, Israel said that it “is preventing the entry
of all vessels into the Gaza Strip, in accordance with international
law.”
Israel had repeatedly vowed to stop the aid boat from reaching Gaza,
and described the ship as a “selfie yacht” carrying
“celebrities.”
“I have instructed the IDF to ensure that the Madleen flotilla does
not reach Gaza,” Katz said on Sunday.
Israel’s foreign ministry said the group “attempted to stage a
media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity.”
“There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip – they do not
involve Instagram selfies,” it added.
In an earlier statement on Monday, the ministry said “unauthorized
attempts to breach the blockade are dangerous, unlawful, and undermine
ongoing humanitarian efforts.”
The French foreign ministry said on Monday that there were six French
nationals on board the Madleen, and that it is in contact with Israeli
authorities to bring them back. The French government had previously
warned the activists against their plan “due to the risks
involved,” a statement from the ministry added.
An Élysée source told CNN that France’s President Emmanuel Macron
“has requested that arrangements be made, as quickly as possible, for
the return” of its nationals.
The foreign ministry statement also called on the Israeli government to
allow “immediate, large-scale, and unhindered access for humanitarian
aid to Gaza.”
Hamas demanded the immediate release of the activists and condemned
their detention in a statement, calling the interception “a flagrant
violation of international law, and an attack on civilian volunteers
acting out of humanitarian motives.”
As the Madleen was taken to Ashdod, some 15 activists protested the
ship’s seizure in the city. The demonstrators carried signs reading,
“resist genocide,” “release the Madleen activists now” and
“stop state terror.”
“We… have come to express our support and solidarity with the
Madleen as part of the Freedom Flotilla, whose activists were abducted
by Israel,” one activist said in English. The demonstrators were
interrupted by a passerby who shouted in Hebrew, “You’re living in
Israel,” calling the protesters “bullies” and “hooligans.”
The is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an organization that has
campaigned against Israel’s blockade of Gaza and tried to break the
siege by boat.
The crew, which had publicized the location of the ship with an online
tracker, began preparing for the possibility of interception by the
Israeli military. On Monday morning, the UK-flagged civilian vessel was
north of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, slowly approaching the coast
of Gaza, but the tracker has since appeared to have stopped.
“We know that it’s a very risky mission and we know that previous
experiences with flotillas like this have resulted in attacks, violence
and even cases of death,” Thunberg told CNN on Saturday.
Israel imposed a full humanitarian blockade of Gaza on March 2, cutting
off food, medical supplies, and other aid to the more than 2 million
Palestinians who live in the territory for 11 weeks.
Faced with growing international pressure, Israel began allowing a
trickle of aid in late May. But humanitarian organizations say it is
only a fraction of the aid that entered the enclave before the war, and
have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis and the growing risk of
widespread famine. A UN-backed report warned in late April that one in
five people were .
Dozens of Palestinians over the past week while on their way to try
and obtain aid from a new US-backed group commissioned to deliver aid
to Gaza, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The group is intended
to replace the UN-led system of distributing aid in Gaza. The United
Nations has warned that the new distribution mechanism has become a for
desperate people seeking food in the strip.
Last month, another vessel from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition came
under claimed was an Israeli drone attack off the coast of Malta in
international waters. The group did not provide evidence that the drone
was Israeli, while the Israeli military has declined to comment on the
alleged attack.
The ship, the Conscience, was heading to Malta, where a large
contingent of activists, including Thunberg, were due to board before
it departed for Gaza.
The later voyage on the Madleen, which was intercepted by Israel,
departed from Sicily last Friday.
An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated Irish actor Liam
Cunningham was onboard the Madleen. The FFC has confirmed he is not
onboard.
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