Greta Thunberg has now left Israel after being stopped and detained along with other people on a Gaza aid boat. The Israeli Foreign Ministry shared photos of the 22-year-old climate activist on a plane, writing on X that she has “just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden”, her native country, via France.
Ms Thunberg was detained while attempting to deliver aid to the besieged enclave. She was among a dozen or so activists who boarded the Madleen, a humanitarian vessel attempting get supplies there, before the boat was intercepted by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and forced to dock at Ashdod Port yesterday night.
Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz, congratulated the armed forces for intercepting the aid boat at the time, and confirmed that after reaching the Israeli port of Ashdod, the passengers would be sent back to their home countries, as per The Telegraph. Mr Kats also said he had told troops to “show the flotilla passengers the video of the horrors of the October 7 massacre”.
The Cabinet minister said he wanted the vessel’s passengers to “see exactly who the Hamas terrorist organisation they came to support and for whom they work is, what atrocities they committed against women, the elderly, and children, and against whom Israel is fighting to defend itself”.
The attack on October 7, 2023 by Hamas, the terror group that runs Gaza, saw some 1,200 civilians killed and around 250 taken hostage, with some still yet to be released.
He later claimed Ms Thunberg and other activists refused to watch the footage. Mr Katz told reporters: “Greta and her flotilla companions were taken into a room upon their arrival to the screening of the horror film of the October 7 massacre… when they saw what it was about, they refused to continue watching.
“The anti-Semitic flotilla members are turning a blind eye to the truth and have proven once again that they prefer the murderers to the murdered and continue to ignore the atrocities committed by Hamas against Jewish and Israeli women, adults, and children.”
The Gaza-bound aid boat, Madleen, under escort of Israeli naval forces enters (Image: AP)
Katz and other members of the Israeli government have been criticised for characterising support for Gaza’s suffering civilian population as pro-Hamas, the terror group that runs Gaza, or “anti-Semitic”.
Thunberg, as well as two other activists and a journalist agreed to be deported and leave the country, according to Adalah, a legal rights group in Israel representing the flotilla’s passengers.
Other activists who refused to be removed from the country and are challenging their deportation were being held in detention, the group said, with their case set to be heard by authorities in Israel, as per Sky News.
The yacht was operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said: “We continue to demand the immediate release of all volunteers and the return of the stolen aid. Their detention is unlawful and a violation of international law.”
The vessel was carrying a small shipment of humanitarian aid, with items like rice and baby formula. Israel’s Foreign Ministry says it will be taken to Gaza.
Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Gaza in response to October 7, which has seen nearly 55,000 Palestinians killed according the the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry.
The conflict has unleashed an humanitarian crisis in the region, with mass displacement and hundreds of thousands at risk of starvation, the UN World Food Programme said in March.
An 11-week Israeli blockade of all aid which was recently lifted, has reportedly deepended a hunger crisis for the roughly 2 million Palestinians in the enclave, as per CNN.
Gaza’s population are now almost completely reliant on international aid because nearly all food production capabilities have been destroyed.
