Madleen route tracker: Greta Thunberg’s aid boat to Gaza boarded by Israel

Climate activist Greta Thunberg, 22, says the group is attempting to break Israelâ??s naval blockade

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A flotilla carrying climate activist Greta Thunberg on a weeklong journey to Gaza has been boarded by Israeli military forces and transported to Israel.

The 12-person Madleen vessel was intercepted off the coast of Gaza in the early hours of Monday, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) that manages the boat.

In a statement on social media, they said Israeli forces had “rammed and boarded” the vessel. An hour earlier, they claimed they were “drones overhead”. “Quadcopters are surrounding the ship, spraying it with a white paint-like substance,” the FFC wrote on Telegram. “Communications are jammed, and disturbing sounds are being played over the radio.”

Israeli officials said the group would be taken to the port of Ashdod, from where they would return to their home countries. Israel Katz, the country’s defence minister, said he had instructed the military to show the flotilla passengers videos of the 7 October massacres when they arrive in Israel.

He claimed it was necessary for “Greta and her fellow Hamas supporters 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 FFC posted a video appearing to show the moment the ship was intercepted. They have since posted pre-recorded SOS videos from all 12 crew members calling for their respective governments to help secure their release.

The Israeli foreign ministry also posted footage of the aftermath of the interception, including pictures of the military handing out food and water to the crew.

The Madleen ship and its crew of 12 volunteers set off from Catania, Sicily on 1 June, carrying a nominal amount of humanitarian aid.

The FFC said the trip was aimed at trying “to break Israel’s more than 17-year illegal and inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip”.

The ship’s location was being monitored live by Forensic Architecture, using a Garmin live tracker on board, but that tracker has since been switched off.

Who is on the boat?

Activist Greta Thunberg stands aboard the aid ship Madleen (Reuters )

Named after Gaza’s only female fisher, the vessel is carrying climate activist Greta Thunberg and French-Palestinian Member of European Parliament Rima Hassan, among others.

Ms Thunberg shot to notoriety in 2018 when she decided to skip school as a 15-year-old in an attempt to persuade the Swedish parliament to take more action on climate change.

Speaking aboard the Madleen, Ms Thunberg told Middle East Eye: “We have promised ourselves and we have promised the Palestinian people to do everything we can.

“When our governments are failing us … then it falls on us to step up and be the adults in the room.

“We are just human beings, very concerned about what’s happening, and do not accept what is going on.”

The other activists on board the vessel are: Yasemin Acar (Germany), Baptiste Andre (France), Thiago Avila (Brazil), Omar Faiad (France), Pascal Maurieras (France) Yanis Mhamdi (France) Suayb Ordu (Turkiye), Sergio Toribio (Spain) Marco van Rennes (The Netherlands) and Reva Viard (France).

What is their plan?

A tracker provided by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition shows the Madleen off the coast of Crete as of 15.19 GMT (Freedom Flotilla Coalition )

The FFC said the boat intended to spend at least seven days travelling to Gaza to break the naval blockade that has been in place since 2007.

There were concerns that the boat may be attacked. Last month, another vessel operated by the FFC, the Conscience, was reportedly bombed by drones off Malta en route to Gaza. Ms Thunberg said at the time that she planned to board the boat in Malta.

The FFC accused Israel of carrying out the attacks. Israel did not respond to those accusations.

On 3 June, the FFC said that an Israel-made Hellenic Coastguard drone (IAI Heron UAV) was seen hovering over the Madleen.

In a statement shared on social media, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said: “At 11:12pm CEST+1, 68km away from Greek territorial waters, a drone began to hover above the ‘Madleen’. The drone is no longer there.”

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