LONDON– The Israeli Foreign Ministry stated early Monday that Israeli pressures had actually boarded and drawn away an independently possessed ship bring Swedish civils rights lobbyist Greta Thunberg and numerous others, that stated they were trying to bring altruistic help to the Gaza Strip.
The watercraft, the Madleen, was “securely making its means to the coasts of Israel,” the ministry stated in a declaration, ridiculing the initiatives by those aboard as a “media justification.”
” The travelers are anticipated to go back to their home nations,” the ministry stated.
A picture grab from video footage launched by Liberty Flotilla Union on June 9, 2025, reveals lobbyists aboard the Gaza-bound help watercraft Madleen, with their hands in the air, as they are being obstructed by the Israeli pressures in global waters prior to getting to the blockaded Palestinian region. The watercraft was rerouted to Israel’s coasts, protecting against the lobbyists onboard, consisting of Swedish advocate Greta Thunberg and European parliament participant Rima Hassan, from getting to the Gaza Strip.
Liberty Flotilla Coalition/AFP through Getty Pictures
The ship had actually been coming close to the coastline of the Gaza Strip with the mentioned objective of damaging an Israeli clog on help through the sea and supplying altruistic materials to the region. According to the Liberty Flotilla Union, the team that arranged the help journey, the 12 individuals aboard were unarmed.
” The ship was illegally boarded, its unarmed private team abducted, and its life-saving freight– consisting of infant formula, food and clinical materials– seized,” the union stated in a statement on Monday.
The sea clog of Gaza precedes the existing dispute that began when Hamas released a shock strike on southerly Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and has actually remained in location because Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
Israeli authorities launched pictures of Thunberg and others putting on orange life vests and resting very closely with each other on the Madleen. Individuals in Israel fatigue clothes are seen in the video clip handing bread and water to the lobbyists.
The ministry additionally launched a separate image of Thunberg, in which a soldier is handing her bread and water. The ministry gone along with that picture with a declaration stating Thunberg was “presently on her means to Israel, risk-free and in excellent spirits.”
A video clip uploaded by the union showed up to tell off the characterization that Thunberg remained in “excellent spirits.”
” If you see this video clip we have actually been obstructed and abducted in global waters by the Israeli work pressures or pressures that sustain Israel,” Thunberg claims in a video that was fired before the vessel being obstructed.
An Israeli solider passes a bun to Greta Thunberg onboard the Gaza-bound British-flagged luxury yacht “Madleen” after Israeli pressures boarded the charity vessel as it tried to get to the Gaza Strip despite an Israeli marine clog, in this still picture launched on June 9, 2025.
Israel Foreign Ministry through X through Reuters
In the video clip, which was confirmed by ABC Information after it was uploaded online, Thunberg advised her “close friends, family members and pals” to use stress on the Swedish federal government to promote their launch “immediately.” Various other lobbyists onboard taped comparable messages.
Israeli Protection Preacher Israel Katz stated in a declaration to social media sites that he had actually “advised the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to reveal the flotilla travelers the video clip of the scaries of the October 7 bloodbath when they get to the port of Ashdod.”
Katz had before the ship being drawn away revealed that he had actually advised the IDF to act to make sure that the flotilla “does not get to Gaza.” The declaration from Katz stated the IDF had actually been advised to quit the ship from getting to Gaza “and to take any kind of procedures required to do so.”
