A aid boat linked to Gaza illegally seized in international waters by Israeli forces was towed in the port of Ashdod, with the dozen international activists who were on board now confronted with detention and deportation.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which launched the ship to attract international attention to the imminent famine to besieged Gaza, said that it had been captured around 4:02 am (01:02 GMT) on Monday, about 200 km (120 miles) from Gaza, arriving in Ashdod while the night fell.
Earlier, the coalition published a video of the ship, which left Sicily on June 1, showing the activists – including the climate activist Greta Thunberg and the French member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan – with their hands with their hands while the Israeli forces rose aboard the ship and kidnapped them.
Adalah, a Palestinian legal center representing activists, said they should be detained in a detention center before being expelled.
He declared that Israel had “no legal authority” to take over the ship, which was in international waters, not heading for Israel but to the “territorial waters of the State of Palestine”.
The arrests of the 12 “non-armed activists” rose to “a serious violation of international law,” he said in a statement.
Huwaida Arraf, an FFC organizer, told Tel Aviv Tribune that there had been no contact with activists since they had been detained in the early hours on Monday.
“We have lawyers on standby that will demand that they have access to it this evening-as soon as possible,” she said.
The Madleen, she noted, sailed under a flag of the United Kingdom when it was forcibly seized by Israeli commandos.
“Israel therefore went to international waters and attacked British sovereign territory, which is clearly illegal. And we expect a strong conviction, which we have not yet heard of the United Kingdom,” she said.
The British government has urged Israel to manage its detention of activists “safely with restraint, in accordance with international humanitarian law”.
“We have clearly indicated our position in relation to the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The PM called it appalling and intolerable,” said a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Francesca Albanian, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, said: “Israel has absolutely no authority to intercept and stop a boat like this, which has humanitarian aid, and more than everything else, humanity, to the people of Gaza.”
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Nour Odeh, reporting from the capital of Jordan Amman, said the militants would be accused of illegally enraged Israel.
“These activists had no intention of entering Israel. They wanted to reach the banks of Gaza, which are not part of Israel,” she said.
“But that’s how they will be treated, and they will be expelled because of this.”
‘A form of piracy’
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has described the journey as a stroke of public relations, saying in an article on X that “the” selfie yacht “of” celebrities “goes safely to the banks of Israel”.
He said passengers “underwent medical examinations to make sure they were healthy”, adding that all passengers had to return to their country of origin.
Government spokesperson David Mencer has reserved a special contempt for Thunberg, 22. “Greta did not provide help, she performed. And she is not there for Gaza, let’s be frank on this subject. She is here for Greta,” he said.
In a pre -recorded video message shared by the FFC, Thunberg said: “I urge all my friends, my family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to free myself, me and the others, as soon as possible.”
The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was in contact with the Israeli authorities.
“If the need for consular support occurs, the Embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will assess how we can better help the Swedish citizen / Greta Thunberg to resolve his situation,” a spokesperson said in a written statement to the Reuters news agency.
President Donald Trump, who targeted Thunberg in 2019, rejected his statement. “I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg,” he said.
The office of French president Emmanuel Macron said that the president had asked the Israeli authorities to release the six French nationals on board as soon as possible, qualifying the humanitarian blocking of Gaza as “scandal” and a “shame”.
Turkey has condemned interception as an “odious attack”, while Iran denounced it as “a form of hacking” in international waters.
Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said the activists would be shown videos of atrocities committed during the attack led by October 7, 2023 against southern Israel.
Hamas condemned the seizure of the boat as “state terrorism” and said that it had welcomed its activists.
More murders at the aid distribution point
On the ground in Gaza, Israeli forces have continued their assault, killing 60 Palestinians since dawn, according to medical sources that spoke in Tel Aviv Tribune.
Among them, three doctors, killed in Gaza City, as well as 13 hungry assistance seekers, killed near a help distribution site supported by the United States and the United States in southern Gaza.
More than 130 people have been killed near distribution points managed by the Humanitarian Foundation Shadowy Gaza (GHF) since the end of May.
Israel hired the group to distribute aid in the middle of its total blockade on all imports, including food, fuel and medication, while Israel increased its offensive after having broken its ceasefire agreement with Hamas in March.
The United Nations and other aid groups refused to cooperate with the GHF, accusing it of lacking neutrality and suggesting that the group was trained to allow Israel to achieve its declared military objective of taking over from Gaza.
“The Israeli authorities have blocked the delivery of safe and worthy aid on the scale of the inhabitants of Gaza for more than three months now,” the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA said on Monday.
“We don’t ask for the impossible. Allow us to do our job: help people in need and preserve their dignity, “he said.
Israeli planes also bombed tents hosted from displaced families in Al-Katiba Square on Monday, causing additional deaths and injuries.
They also targeted the Shaarawi and Haddad buildings in the Tuffah district, east of Gaza City, causing multiple victims.
At least one person was killed and others injured in an artillery attack on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia, to the north.
Israel has killed at least 54,927 people in Gaza since the start of the war, a figure estimated much lower than the actual number of death.