Israeli forces stopped Greta Thunberg and her crew on board the Madleen from reaching Gaza on Monday—just as they had promised to do in the hope of deterring future stunts—seizing the vessel and preparing to send the activists back home.
The group set out from Italy at the beginning of June, intending to distribute aid among Palestinians—though, as critics pointed out, they barely had enough to feed a dozen people. After seizing the boat, Israel’s foreign ministry announced that “the tiny amount of aid that was on the yacht and not consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels.” It added:
While Greta and others attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity—and which included less than a single truckload of aid—more than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks, and in addition, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed close to 11 million meals directly to civilians in Gaza.
The activists were themselves handed water and sandwiches, while a pre-recorded video landed on social media declaring that the group had been “kidnapped.”
All the passengers of the ‘selfie yacht’ are safe and unharmed. They were provided with sandwiches and water. The show is over. pic.twitter.com/tLZZYcspJO
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) June 9, 2025
The crew was arrested in international waters in the early hours of the morning. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the activists would be shown videos of atrocities committed during the October 7th Hamas terror attack upon their arrival in Israel.
“The show is over,” said Israeli officials as the Madleen was diverted from its intended path. But anti-Israeli forces—pleased to have ‘found’ another grievance with which to bash the war against Hamas—will not let this be the end of the story.
Turkey has described the seizure as “a clear violation of international law,” saying also that it was a “heinous attack.” U.N. envoy Francesca Albanese added that “Madleen’s journey may have ended, but the mission isn’t over.”
Every Mediterranean port must send boats with aid and solidarity to Gaza.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
