{"id":152725,"date":"2025-06-09T05:11:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T05:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/idf-ordered-to-stop-gaza-bound-aid-ship-carrying-greta-thunberg-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T05:11:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T05:11:06","slug":"idf-ordered-to-stop-gaza-bound-aid-ship-carrying-greta-thunberg-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/idf-ordered-to-stop-gaza-bound-aid-ship-carrying-greta-thunberg-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"IDF ordered to stop Gaza-bound aid ship carrying Greta Thunberg – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alarm briefly sounds on vessel Madleen amid interception fears after Israeli defence minister tells military to \u2018take all necessary measures\u2019 to block humanitarian ship
The Israeli defence minister has threatened to \u201ctake all necessary measures\u201d to prevent a humanitarian ship<\/a> carrying climate campaigner Greta Thunberg from reaching Gaza.
The Madleen says it is attempting to reach the shores of the territory to bring in a symbolic amount of aid and raise international awareness of the continuing humanitarian crisis.
But on Sunday, Israel<\/a> Katz ordered the Israeli military to stop the ship from getting anywhere near Gaza.
\u201cI have instructed the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to act so that the hate flotilla \u2026 does not reach the shores of Gaza<\/a> \u2013 and to take all necessary measures to that end,\u201d Katz said in a statement.
\u201cTo the antisemitic Greta [Thunberg] and her friends who echo Hamas propaganda, I say clearly: You\u2019d better turn back \u2013 because you will not reach Gaza. Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or to assist terrorist organisations \u2013 by sea, by air, and by land.\u201d
Thunberg, who has said she is taking part in the mission \u201cbecause the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity\u201d, has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
In the early hours of Monday, an alarm was briefly sounded on the vessel, named Madleen, amid concerns about a possible interception.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the activist group operating the vessel, posted on Telegram a voice memo from Thiago Avila, one of the activists onboard, saying \u201cwe have been surrounded by many lights all at once; they were circling our boat but in the end they kept going their own way.\u201d
On board the vessel alongside Thunberg are 10 other activists from Germany, France, Brazil, Turkey, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands. They include Rima Hassan, a French member of the European parliament of Palestinian descent who has been barred from entering Israel.
Responding to Katz on Sunday, they said: \u201cThe statement by Israel\u2019s defence minister is yet another example of Israel threatening the unlawful use of force against civilians \u2013 and attempting to justify that violence with smears.
\u201cWe will not be intimidated,\u201d it added. \u201cThe world is watching.\u201d
As of Sunday evening, the Madleen, which left the port of Catania in Sicily, southern Italy<\/a>, on 1 June, was approximately 160 nautical miles from Gaza.
\u201cWe are monitoring the situation closely,\u201d the FFC said. \u201cWe remain calm, resolute, and prepared for the possibility of an Israeli attack. We reiterate our call to world governments to demand that Israel stand down. Israel has no right to obstruct our effort to reach Gaza.\u201d
Israel\u2019s blockade on Gaza has been in place for years, even before the Israel-Hamas war that erupted in October 2023 after the Hamas attacks on Israel in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 people were taken hostage.
It was slightly eased in mid-May after nearly three months, allowing a limited amount of humanitarian aid into the territory. But malnutrition is spreading, medics and aid workers have warned, with UN officials describing Gaza as \u201cthe hungriest place on Earth\u201d.
Katz said on Sunday that the blockade was essential to Israel\u2019s national security as it seeks to destroy Hamas. \u201cThe State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,\u201d he said.
More than 54,000 Palestinians have died during Israel\u2019s assault, according to Gaza health authorities, with much of the territory reduced to rubble.
Israel\u2019s plan to concentrate food delivery in hubs guarded by private security contractors and the Israeli military and provided by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has proved to be chaotic and dangerous, critics say.
At least four people were killed<\/a> and others wounded by Israeli fire on Sunday, about a kilometre from a food distribution point in Gaza, Palestinian medics and officials said. The deaths bring the number of people who have been killed while trying to find food in Gaza since 27 May<\/a>, when GHF became responsible for civilian food provision, to 110. More than 1,000 have been injured.
Israel said it was expecting to intercept the flotilla in the next 48 hours.
Before leaving Sicily on board the Madleen, which is carrying a symbolic amount of rice and infant formula, Thunberg told reporters: \u201cWe are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying. Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. And, no matter how dangerous this mission is, it\u2019s not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the livestreamed genocide.\u201d
Israel has denied any accusations of genocide.
Thunberg, who became an internationally famous climate activist after organising protests in her native Sweden, had been due to board a previous Freedom Flotilla ship, the Conscience, last month<\/a>. It was bombed by drones and disabled while in international waters off Malta<\/a> as it headed towards the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alarm briefly sounds on vessel Madleen amid interception fears after Israeli defence minister tells military to \u2018take all necessary measures\u2019 to block humanitarian shipThe Israeli defence minister has threatened to \u201ctake all necessary measures\u201d to prevent a humanitarian ship carrying climate campaigner Greta Thunberg from reaching Gaza.The Madleen says it is attempting to reach the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}