One week after setting sail for Gaza on a ship stocked with humanitarian aid, Greta Thunberg and her fellow activists have been detained by Israeli forces. Thunberg was one of 12 people aboard the Madleen, a ship of journalists and activists who were hoping to deliver crucial supplies to Gaza and raise awareness about the dire conditions in the region where more than 2 million people are facing starvation as a result of Israel’s aid blockade. (Though Israel has claimed to be implementing a system for aid distribution, the WHO has called the plan “grossly inadequate” while the U.N. accused Israel of “violating core international humanitarian principles” for putting “military personnel in charge of aid delivery.”)
Based on videos posted by people on the ship, Israeli forces intercepted the Madleen early on Monday. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an activist group that organized the voyage, said in a statement that its crew had been “kidnapped” by the IDF. “The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo — including baby formula, food and medical supplies — confiscated,” the group wrote.
In a prerecorded video posted to Instagram, Thunberg said she’d been “intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel.” She urged her followers to “put pressure on the Swedish government” to release her and the others as soon as possible. Other people onboard released similar prerecorded videos.
The Israeli government confirmed in an X post that the boat had been intercepted, saying it was “safely making its way to the shores of Israel.” They said the crew members were “safe” and “expected to return to their home countries.”
They also mocked the voyage as a PR stunt, calling it a “selfie yacht” and adding that the “tiny amount of aid that wasn’t consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels.” There are not, in fact, any celebrities who took part in the expedition — actor Liam Cunningham, who played Davos Seaworth in Game of Thrones, was present for the ship’s departure but did not take part in the weeklong voyage. Rima Hassan, a French member of European Parliament, joined Thunberg and the others as a crew member.
In a press conference before the ship set sail, Thunberg emphasized the gravity of their mission. “We are doing this because no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying, because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity,” she said. “And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the livestreamed genocide.”