ISRAEL: A Gaza-bound aid boat reached Israel’s Ashdod port on Monday after being intercepted by Israeli forces, preventing the dozen activists on board including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg from reaching the blockaded Palestinian territory.
An AFP photographer said that the Madleen, which organisers said was intercepted in international waters overnight, reached the port north of Gaza at around 8:45 pm (1745 GMT), escorted by the Israeli navy.
The Madleen set sail from Italy on June 1 to raise awareness of food shortages in the Gaza Strip, which the United Nations has called the “hungriest place on Earth”.
At around 4:02 am (0102 GMT) on Monday, Israeli troops “forcibly intercepted” the vessel as it approached Gaza, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said.
“If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped,” Thunberg said in pre-recorded footage shared by the coalition.
Video from the group shows the activists with their hands up as Israeli forces boarded the vessel, with one of them saying nobody was injured prior to the interception.
Israel’s foreign ministry, in a post on social media, said “all the passengers of the ‘selfie yacht’ are safe and unharmed”, adding it expected the activists to return to their home countries.
Turkey condemned the interception as a “heinous attack” and Iran denounced it as “a form of piracy” in international waters.
In May, another Freedom Flotilla ship, the Conscience, reported it was struck by drones in an attack the group blamed on Israel. In 2010, an Israeli commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of a similar attempt to breach the naval blockade, left 10 civilians dead.
On Sunday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said the blockade, in place for years before the Israel-Hamas war, was needed to prevent Palestinian militants from importing weapons.
