Activists say Israeli troops have boarded a yacht making an attempt to carry humanitarian help to the Gaza Strip, in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade.
“Connection has been lost” on the Madleen, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) marketing campaign group stated on the Telegram app.
It posted a photograph exhibiting folks in life jackets sitting with their arms up.
Showing to substantiate that the ship had been boarded, Israel’s overseas ministry stated the yacht was “safely making its way to the shores of Israel” and its passengers had been “expected to return to their home countries”.
Local weather activist Greta Thunberg is amongst these aboard the vessel, which was reported to be off the Egyptain coast.
Israel says its blockade is important to stop weapons from reaching Hamas militants in Gaza.
After reporting that the yacht had been boarded, the FFC posted quick, pre-recorded movies of a number of the activists, together with Thunberg.
Within the footage, activists say “if you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped” by the Israeli navy or forces supporting Israel.
The FFC earlier stated the vessel, which left Italy’s island of Sicily on Friday, was carrying humanitarian help and had been “prepared for the possibility of an Israeli attack”.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had warned that the yacht ought to flip again and that Israel would act in opposition to any try and breach the blockade.
He wrote in a publish on X on Sunday: “I have instructed the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to act to prevent the ‘Madeleine’ [sic] hate flotilla from reaching the shores of Gaza – and to take whatever measures are necessary to that end.”
Katz says the aim of Israel’s blockade, which has been in place since 2007, is to “prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas” and is important to Israel’s safety because it seeks to destroy Hamas.
The FFC has argued that the ocean blockade is illegitimate, characterising Katz’s assertion for instance of Israel threatening the illegal use of drive in opposition to civilians and “attempting to justify that violence with smears”.
“We will not be intimidated. The world is watching,” FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya stated.
“The Madleen is a civilian vessel, unarmed and sailing in international waters, carrying humanitarian aid and human rights defenders from across the globe… Israel has no right to obstruct our effort to reach Gaza.”
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic amount of help, together with rice and child formulation, the group stated.
Residents of Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Turkey are onboard.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 folks after they boarded Turkish ship Mavi Marmara that was main an help flotilla in direction of Gaza.
Israel lately started to permit restricted help into Gaza after a three-month land blockade, prioritising distribution by the Gaza Humanitarian Basis, which is backed by Israel and the US however extensively condemned by humanitarian teams.
The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, stated final week Palestinians had been being offered with the “grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available”.
However in a publish on X early on Monday, the Israeli overseas ministry stated: “While Greta and others attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity – and which included less than a single truckload of aid – more than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks, and in addition, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed close to 11 million meals directly to civilians in Gaza.
“There are methods to ship help to the Gaza Strip – they don’t contain Instagram selfies.”
It is almost 20 months since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
Not less than 54,880 folks have been killed in Gaza since, in response to the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.
