Gaza-bound aid ship arrives at Israel's Ashdod Port, activists onboard detained

JERUSALEM

An image grab from footage published on the Israeli Foreign Ministry's X account on June 9, 2025 show what the ministry said were passengers of the Madleen Gaza-bound aid boat after the vessel was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters and redirected to Israel's shores, preventing the activists onboard, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg and European parliament member Rima Hassan, from reaching the blockaded Palestinian territory

An aid ship bound for Gaza docked at Israel’s Ashdod Port on Monday after Israeli forces intercepted it and arrested all activists onboard, Israel’s public broadcaster KAN said.

No details were shared about the condition of the activists on the Madleen ship.

At around 4:02 am (0102 GMT), Israeli forces "forcibly intercepted" the vessel in international waters as it was approaching Gaza, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said.

"If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters," Thunberg said in a pre-recorded video shared by the coalition.

Footage from the group shows the activists with their hands up as Israeli forces boarded the vessel, with one of them saying nobody was injured prior to the interception.

Israel's foreign ministry wrote on social media, "all the passengers of the 'selfie yacht' are safe and unharmed," adding that it expected the activists to return to their home countries.

Türkiye condemned the interception of the Madleen as a "heinous attack" in international waters. Iran also denounced it as "a form of piracy", citing the same grounds.

In May, another Freedom Flotilla ship, the Conscience, reported it was struck by drones in an attack the group blamed on Israel. In 2010, a commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of a similar attempt to breach Israel's naval blockade, left 10 civilians dead.

“(Though) we feel helpless and our capabilities are limited, we continue to do everything we can, along with the free people of the world, to reject the war and demand the opening of the crossings and the entry of aid,” the International Committee for Breaking the Siege (ICBSG) said in a statement.

“We affirm that targeting ships attempting to break the blockade will not deter us.”

ICBSG was among the organizers of the British-flagged ship Madleen that attempted to break a crippling blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza, where nearly 55,000 people have been killed in a brutal onslaught since October 2023.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the activists will be deported to their home countries.

After the Israeli interception of the vessel, U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese urged Mediterranean ports to send more aid ships, calling attempts to break the Israeli siege "a legal duty for states and moral imperative for all."

"They shall sail together - united, they will be unstoppable," she said, calling for the immediate release of the Madleen aid ship.

“The U.K. government must urgently seek full clarification and secure the immediate release of the vessel and its crew," Albanese said.

“The Madleen must be allowed to continue its lawful humanitarian mission to Gaza.”

The aid ship set sail for Gaza on June 1 from the Port of San Giovanni Li Cuti in Sicily, Italy.

Among the 12-strong crew aboard the aid ship are Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.

Other activists aboard the Madleen aid ship include Yasemin Acar from Germany; Baptiste Andre, Pascal Maurieras, Yanis Mhamdi, and Reva Viard from France; Thiago Avila from Brazil; Suayb Ordu from Türkiye; Sergio Toribio from Spain; Marco van Rennes from the Netherlands; and Omar Faiad, a journalist with Al Jazeera Mubasher, also from France.

As Israel continued to close all Gaza’s border crossings to humanitarian aid since early March, aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among Gaza’s 2.4 million population.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.