A Gaza-bound aid boat, Madleen, carrying Greta Thunberg and 11 other activists had arrived at an Israeli port on Monday after forces stopped and detained them
Greta Thunberg has been pictured on a plane as she left Israel after being detained along with other activists onboard the Madleen which was heading for Gaza.
The aid boat carrying Thunberg and other activists arrived at an Israeli port Monday after the country’s forces stopped and detained them — enforcing a longstanding blockade of the Palestinian territory that has been tightened during the Israel-Hamas war. It is claimed that she and other activists refused to watch footage of Hamas atrocities carried out on October 7, 2023 in Israel.
Eight of the 12 activists refused to sign deportation papers and are still being detained in Israel, but Thunberg and three others agreed to sign the documents. Greta will fly to France alongside other activists before heading back to Sweden.
“I do more good outside of Israel than if I am forced to stay here for a few weeks,” she said, according to Moatasem Zedan, a spokesperson for the human rights group Adalah who is providing legal representation to the activists.
Defence Minister Israel Katz had said he’d instructed IDF officials to show the activists the full, unedited footage of the October 7 attacks as recorded by Hamas terrorist body cameras.
But later yesterday, he 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 Madleen, accompanied by Israel’s navy, had arrived in the Israeli port of Ashdod on Monday evening, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry. It published a photo on social media of Thunberg after disembarking.
The 12 activists underwent medical checks to ensure they are in good health, the ministry said, and they were expected to be held at a detention facility in Ramle before being deported, according to Adalah, a legal rights group representing them.
The activists had set out to protest Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which is among the deadliest and most destructive since World War II, and its restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid. Both have put the territory of around 2 million Palestinians at risk of famine.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organized the voyage, said the activists were “kidnapped by Israeli forces” while trying to deliver desperately needed aid.
“The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted and its life-saving cargo — including baby formula, food and medical supplies — confiscated,” it said in a statement.