BREAKING: Israeli Forces Board Gaza Aid Flotilla and Detain 12 Crew Members
Zeteo contributor Greta Thunberg was on board the ship.
Israeli forces boarded the Gaza Aid Flotilla ship, the “Madleen,” early Monday morning local time and detained the 12 passengers on board, according to several reports.
The humanitarians on the ship, including globally-known humanitarian and Zeteo contributor Greta Thunberg, European Union Member of Parliament Rima Hassan, and several other volunteers, sought to deliver aid to Gaza.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition says it has lost connection with the vessel, which was carrying medical supplies, diapers, baby formula, children’s prosthetics, and other desperately needed aid in Gaza.
One of the last images posted on the flotilla’s Telegram account showed those on the ship with their hands up.
Before connection was lost, video from the vessel showed some form of white substance sprayed upon the vessel. Passengers reported the unknown liquid came from drones flying overhead, while the ship’s radios began being jammed.
“The ‘selfie yacht’ of the ‘celebrities’ is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. The passengers are expected to return to their home countries,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that he instructed the Israeli military to take “any measures necessary” to block the aid ship – or as he called it, the “hate Flotilla” – from reaching Gaza.
“This interception, carried out outside Israeli territorial waters, constitutes a blatant violation of international law, including maritime and humanitarian law,” Hassan’s office said in a statement. “The arrest of the crew members and the confiscation of aid intended for a population in immediate humanitarian distress is unacceptable.”
Organizers have released several videos of the passengers aboard, urging the passengers’ countries of origin to pressure Israel to free them.
"My name is Greta Thunberg, and I am from Sweden,” Thunberg said in her video. “If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel. I urge all my friends, family, and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”
Here are the 12 people aboard the Madleen, and where they are from:
Greta Thunberg – Swedish activist and humanitarian
Rima Hassan – French-Palestinian member of the European Parliament
Baptiste Andre – France
Pascal Maurieras – France
Yanis Mhamdi – France
Reva Viard – France
Omar Faiad – French reporter with Al Jazeera Mubasher
Thiago Avila – Brazil
Suayb Ordu – Turkey
Sergio Toribio – Spain
Marco van Rennes – The Netherlands
Yasemin Acar – Germany
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Let’s see if the US sends an Aircraft Carrier task force to escort the next aid mission. Maybe even have F-35 overflights? Oh that’s right, the US SUPPORTS the GENOCIDE and would NEVER INTERFERE AGAINST ISRAEL.
Fucking psychopaths.
I wonder if any of these countries, whose citizens were violently kidnapped by the terrorist-state of Israeli, will initiate ANY legal prosecution against it.