{"id":429070,"date":"2025-06-09T11:05:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T09:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/06\/09\/freedom-flotilla-gaza-israele\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T19:13:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:13:46","slug":"iisrael-stops-the-freedom-flotilla-in-international-waters-seizes-humanitarian-aid-for-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/06\/09\/iisrael-stops-the-freedom-flotilla-in-international-waters-seizes-humanitarian-aid-for-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel stops the Freedom Flotilla in international waters, seizes humanitarian aid for Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – With the first light of dawn, at exactly 3:02 a.m. this morning (June 9),\u00a0the journey<\/a>\u00a0of the Madleen to Gaza was interrupted. The Israeli navy boarded the boat of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition in international waters, seized\u00a0the humanitarian aid, and transferred the crew <\/strong>to the port of Ashdod, some thirty kilometers south of Tel Aviv. A “blatant violation of international law”emphsized<\/a>the Left Group in the European Parliament,\u00a0whose ranks include Rima Hassan<\/strong>, a Franco-Palestinian MEP who was one of the 12 aboard\u00a0the Flotilla.<\/p>\n

The Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, French Al\u00a0Jazeera journalist Omar Faiad, and nine\u00a0other\u00a0volunteers were with her. Of the crew, six members are French<\/strong>. The others are Swedish, Turkish, Spanish, Dutch, English and German. “These volunteers are not subject to Israeli jurisdiction and cannot be criminalized for delivering aid or challenging an illegal blockade\u2014their detention is arbitrary, unlawful, and must end immediately,<\/strong>” a press release of the collective that fights for the rights of the Palestinian people\u00a0underlined<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Madleen had set sail on June 1 from the port of Catania and – after diverting its course at the request of Frontex to rescue a boat of migrants off the coast of Libya –\u00a0arrived within sight of the coast of the Gaza Strip.\u00a0Already during the journey, Israel had made it clear that it would prevent access to the Palestinian enclave, despite\u00a0the UN’s explicit request to guarantee safe passage t<\/strong>o the Freedom Flotilla and despite freedom of navigation and the rules of maritime and international law.<\/p>\n

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz<\/strong> said he had instructed the army to show the Madleen’s crew “videos of the horrors of the October 7 massacre” when they arrived at Ashdod port. “It is only fair that the anti-Semitic Greta and her fellow Hamas supporters<\/strong> see exactly who the Hamas terrorist organization is that they have come to support and who they work for,” the far-right minister attacked. The ship was transporting necessities for the people of Gaza<\/strong>, including powdered milk, flour, rice, nappies, feminine hygiene products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and prostheses for children.<\/p>\n

The Ankara government condemned the Israeli action, a “heinous act of the government” of Benjamin Netanyahu<\/strong> that “threatens freedom of navigation and maritime safety.” So far, the governments of the European countries of the crew members detained by Israel have taken no position despite the growing media pressure exerted since the past few days by the large following enjoyed by Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, above all.<\/p>\n

“Netanyahu’s army intercepted the Freedom Flotilla against a background of deafening silence from political leaders<\/strong> in Europe and around the world. History is watching them. Their inaction to put an end to the genocide is nothing but complicity,’ noted Manon Aubry<\/strong>, co-chair of the European Left group and member of the French\u00a0radical left-wing party La France Insoumise, of which the MEP\u00a0now in the hands of the Israeli army is also a member. The party led by Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon has mobilized widely and\u00a0called for demonstrations in support of the Freedom Flotilla in over\u00a030 French cities this afternoon. The European Union “demands clarity on how they were captured and joins our call for their immediate release,” said the 5 Star Movement delegation to the European Parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French MEP Rima Hassan, Greta Thunberg and the other ten of the crew were transferred to the port of Ashdod, detained by the Israeli army. The collective denounces: “Their detention is arbitrary, illegal and must end immediately”. Silence from European governments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":429060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[31383,31310,31433,27337,31384],"class_list":["post-429070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-freedom-flotilla-coalition-en","tag-gauze","tag-greta-thunberg-and","tag-middle-east-en","tag-rima-hassan-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429070"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429159,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429070\/revisions\/429159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}