ISRAEL’S DEFENCE MINISTER has ordered the military to block an aid boat sailing to Gaza with twelve activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.

The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with a cargo of relief supplies “to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza”.

Israel has come under increasing international criticism over the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations warned in May that the entire population was at risk of famine.

Since 2 March, the country’s aid blockade of the Palestinian enclave has resulted in the deaths of many children due to starvation, while aid groups have warned that more than 90% of the enclave’s 2.3 million people are facing acute food shortages.

In an update this morning, German human rights activist Yasemin Acar, who is on board the ship, said they are 168 nautical miles (311 kilometres) from Gaza. 

But in a statement released by his office this afternoon, Israel Katz said: “I have instructed the military to prevent the Madleen flotilla from reaching Gaza.

“To Greta the antisemite and her companions, Hamas propaganda mouthpieces, I say clearly: turn back because you will not reach Gaza,” Katz said.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Yas (@yaseminacr_)

Katz said Israel would not allow anyone to break the naval blockage of Gaza, which he said is aimed at preventing weapons from reaching Hamas. 

“Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or support terror groups – by sea, air or land,” he added.

The Israeli military had already said it was “prepared to defend the citizens of the State of Israel on all fronts”.

“For this case as well, we are prepared,” army spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in response to a question about the Freedom Flotilla vessel, declining to go into detail.

French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan, who is on board the vessel, claimed in a post on X earlier that the Israeli military plans to intercept and seize the ship by deploying missile boats and elite naval commandos. 

She urged governments to “guarantee safe passage for the Freedom Flotilla.”

‘The best security measure we have is visibility’

Thiago Avila, a Brazilian activist on board the Madleen, this morning called on their supporters to demand their government to ensure the boat’s safe passage.

“We carry all the aid we can. We carry food, medicine, crutches. We carry prosthetics for amputated children. We carry water filters and everything else we could but, of course, it’s a drop in the ocean for the necessities of Gaza,” he said.

The best security measure we have is visibility. It is you sharing, you pressuring your nation states, pressuring your governments for them to pressure for a safe passage.

He said if a single military vessel from the US or Europe were to accompany their boat, it would “severely diminish the risk of our mission to open a people’s humanitarian corridor”. 

A 2010 commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of a similar aid flotilla trying to breach the blockade, left 10 civilians dead.

In May, another Freedom Flotilla ship, the Conscience, reported coming under drone attack while en route for Gaza, prompting Cyprus and Malta to send rescue vessels in response to its distress call. There were no reports of any casualties.

Earlier in its voyage, the Madleen changed course near the Greek island of Crete after receiving a distress signal from a sinking migrant boat.

Activists rescued four Sudanese migrants who had jumped into the sea to avoid being returned to Libya. The four were later transferred to an EU Frontex vessel.

On Wednesday, one of the activists on the boat claimed the vessel was being tightly tracked by Israeli overhead surveillance drones.

Israel had said it was ready to “protect” the country’s maritime space.

Launched in 2010, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition is a coalition of groups opposed to the blockade on humanitarian aid for Gaza that Israel imposed on 2 March and has only partially eased since.

Israel has faced mounting international condemnation over the resulting humanitarian crisis in the territory, where the United Nations has warned the entire population of more than two million is at risk of famine.

With reporting from © AFP 2025