ISRAELI FORCES HALTED a Gaza-bound aid boat in the early hours of this morning, preventing the activists on board – including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg – from reaching the blockaded Palestinian territory.

The Madleen set sail from Italy on 1 June to raise awareness of food shortages in Gaza, which the United Nations has called the “hungriest place on Earth”.

After 21 months of war, the UN warns the entire population is at risk of famine.

At around 4:02 am (00:02 Irish time), Israeli troops “forcibly intercepted” the vessel in international waters as it approached Gaza, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said.

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

SOS! the volunteers on 'Madleen' have been kidnapped by Israeli forces.

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish citizen.

Pressure their foreign ministries and help us keep them safe!

Web: https://t.co/uCGmx8sn8j

X : @SweMFA

FB : @SweMFA

IG : swedishmfa#AllEyesOnMadeleen pic.twitter.com/76Myrg2Bnz

— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) June 9, 2025

Video 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, in a post on social media, said “all the passengers of the ‘selfie yacht’ are safe and unharmed”, adding it expected the activists to return to their home countries.

‘Powerful symbol’

Tánaiste Harris said the Madleen was an “effort to get food and medicine to the starving people of Gaza”.

He remarked that it was an “unarmed civilian effort in the midst of devastation and catastrophic humanitarian conditions”.

He noted the symbolism of the aid boat, and described it as a “powerful symbol of the urgent and essential need to end the blockade on humanitarian aid”.

“What the flotilla has highlighted is the urgent need for humanitarian aid to get into Gaza,” said Harris.

He said its interception is “another effort by the Israeli authorities to stop the entry of aid”.

He added: “The question we should be asking today is not a debate about the merits or not of the flotilla but how it has come to this; that the world is turning a blind eye to starving children in Gaza.”

Elsewhere, Sinn Féin TD and Convenor of the Ireland-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, called on the EU to sanction Israel after intercepting the Madleen.

“These were humanitarian activists in international waters carrying aid to a starving people,” said Ó Snodaigh.

“Israel has no authority in international waters, nor has it any legal right to block aid from Gaza.

“The EU must act immediately to let humanitarian aid into the starving people of Gaza now.

Turkey also condemned the interception 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.

Yesterday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said the blockade, in place since years before the Israel-Hamas war, was needed to prevent Palestinian militants from importing weapons.

And in a statement this morning, Katz said he has instructed the military to screen a video documenting the Hamas-led 7 October attack for the detained activists upon their arrival at Israel’s Ashdod Port.

‘Risked their lives’ for food

The Madleen was intercepted about 185 kilometres west of the coast of Gaza, according to coordinates from the coalition.

President Emmanuel Macron requested that the six French nationals aboard the boat “be allowed to return to France as soon as possible”, a presidential official said.

Israel is facing mounting pressure to allow more aid into Gaza to alleviate widespread shortages of food and basic supplies.

It recently allowed some deliveries to resume after barring them for more than two months and began working with the newly formed, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

But humanitarian agencies have criticised the GHF and the United Nations refuses to work with it, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality.

Dozens of people have been killed near GHF distribution points since late May, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

It said Israeli attacks killed at least 10 people on Sunday, including five civilians hit by gunfire near an aid distribution centre.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal and witnesses said the civilians had been heading to a GHF-run site west of Rafah, in southern Gaza.

The Israeli military said it fired on people who “continued advancing in a way that endangered the soldiers” despite warnings.

Tánaiste Simon Harris meanwhile called for the UN and humanitarian organisations to be “allowed to work independently and do their job”.

“It is a shame on the world and international community that people are starving in Gaza,” he added.

Sinwar

The GHF said there had been no incidents “at any of our three sites” on Sunday.

Outside Nasser Hospital, where the emergency workers brought the casualties, AFPTV footage showed mourners crying over blood-stained body bags.

“I can’t see you like this,” said Lin al-Daghma by her father’s body.

She spoke of the struggle to access food aid under the blockade, despite the recent easing.

At a charity kitchen in Gaza City, displaced Palestinian Umm Ghassan said she had been unable to collect aid from a GHF site “because there were so many people, and there was a lot of shooting”.

“I was afraid to go in, but there were people who risked their lives for their children and families,” she told AFP.

Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said it had located and identified the body of Mohammed Sinwar, presumed Hamas leader in Gaza, in an underground tunnel.

The military, which until Sunday had not confirmed his death, said Israeli forces killed Sinwar on 13 May.

Sinwar was the younger brother of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, accused by Israel of masterminding the 2023 attack that triggered the war.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians.

The health ministry in Gaza says at least 54,880 people, the majority civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war.

The UN considers these figures reliable.

After the deaths of several Hamas leaders, Mohammed Sinwar was thought to be at the heart of decisions on indirect negotiations with Israel.