Israel orders military to stop aid boat with Greta Thunberg reaching Gaza

Israel has ordered the military to block an aid boat headed for Gaza with 12 activists on board, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg.

"I have instructed the military to prevent the Madleen flotilla from reaching Gaza," Israel Katz said in a statement from his office.

"To Greta the antisemite and her companions, Hamas propaganda mouthpieces, I say clearly: turn back because you will not reach Gaza."

Thunberg and 11 other activists set off from Sicily on 1 June, carrying urgent supplies for besieged and starving Palestinians. 

The aid includes baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics. 

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European parliament member Rima Hassan told AFP on Sunday that they would press on until the last minute.

"There are twelve of us civilians on board. We are not armed. There is only humanitarian aid," Hassan said.

Last month, another vessel organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the Conscience, failed to continue its journey after being struck by two drones near Maltese waters. 

FFC-organised ships have been attempting to break Israel’s 18-year land, sea and naval blockade on the Gaza Strip for nearly two decades. 

In 2010, the Mavi Marmara flotilla mission was attacked by Israeli forces, who boarded the ship and killed ten activists.

Since then, Israeli troops have frequently intercepted and seized vessels attempting to break the siege. 

Speaking to Middle East Eye from the aid boat on Tuesday, Thunberg that governments had failed Palestinians, and so it fell “on us to step up and be the adults in the room”. 

“We cannot sit by and allow this to happen. We are watching… a genocide happening, following decades and decades of systematic oppression, ethnic cleansing, occupation,” she said. 

“We are just human beings, very concerned about what's happening, and do not accept what is going on.”

Israel imposed a complete blockade on all humanitarian aid to Gaza for 11 weeks, before partially lifting it on 19 May to allow very limited United Nations aid deliveries, and a US-backed scheme widely panned as unworkable. 

Katz on Sunday said that Israel would not allow anyone to break the maritime siege of Gaza.

"Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or assist terrorist organisations, by sea, air, or land," he said.

middleeasteye.net