“We are being attacked. A war crime is being committed.” Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila around midnight on Monday: the ship Mased With the Fleeta de la Libertad on board and a symbolic shipment of humanitarian aid for Gaza has been intercepted by the Israeli army. “Greta Thunberg is currently on the way to Israel, healthy and saving and of good mood,” the Foreign Ministry has confirmed, with a photo of the Swedish young woman in which a military offers a bun.
Several of the 12 activists traveling in the Mased They have managed to share videos and short messages of the moment they report having been “kidnapped” by Israeli forces. Ávila has stressed that, when being in international waters, Israel has committed a war crime with this operation. Also by preventing the legitimate arrival of humanitarian aid to the strip.
The Eurodiputada Francopalestina Rima Hassan has shared an X message every hour to record when they lost communication due to Israeli intervention. “As soon as they stop having our news, it will mean that the Internet has been cut and that Israel prepares to attack us. This will give them a better idea of the moment,” he explained. The first was at 23.12 local time (22.12 in the peninsular Spain) and the third and last at 1.12 in the morning of Monday.
Shortly after, Hassan has published with marches like painting. “A drone on us has launched a white liquid,” he reported in X. The radio had stopped working for intentional “interference”, so that they could no longer request help from another boat.
Defense Minister Israel Katz congratulated Israel’s Defense Forces (FDI) for its “fast and safe capture of the flotilla Mased to avoid breaking the blockade and reaching the coast of Gaza. ”
According to Katz’s statement, he has ordered his troops to “show passengers the video of the horrors of the massacre of October 7 when they arrive at the port of Ashdod.” And he has rolled back, as on the eve, against the Swedish activist: “It is appropriate that the anti -Semitic Greta and her companions of Hamas see exactly who is the terrorist organization they came to support and for whom they work.”
For its part, Hamas has condemned the interception of the ship and has described the operation of “state terrorism” and “flagrant attack on human consciousness.” The volunteers, defended, intended to “break the siege and expose the crime of hunger.” The attempt of the Flotilla of Freedom to take help to Gaza means, as the Islamist group has written in its diffusion channels, that “Gaza is not alone.”
On Sunday afternoon, when the ship was less than 300 kilometers from the coast of the Palestine Strip, Katz already warned that he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces (FDI) to act to prevent “the flotilla of hatred” reaching the coast of Gaza. “And for them to take all the necessary measures for that purpose. To the anti -Semitic Greta and his companions propaganda spokesmen of Hamas, I tell them clearly: they must return, because they will not reach Gaza,” he added.
In anticipation of the interception of the ship by the Israeli forces, as has finally occurred, the activists had prepared a series of videos in which they say their names and nationalities, with the passport in hand as proof, including the Spanish volunteer Sergio Toribio. And ask their respective governments to intervene. They also ask citizens to pressure through different channels so that their countries’ leaders take measures against Israel
In this sense, the coalition of the Fleeta de la Libertad also recalls that the Mased It is a civil ship with a flag of the United Kingdom and that “has the legal obligation to protect your ship and civilians aboard Israeli intervention.” A similar appeal has launched: “The United Kingdom Government must urgently ask for a complete clarification and ensure the immediate release of the ship and its crew.” And has requested that the ship be allowed to continue “its legitimate humanitarian mission.”
The objective of the Fleeta de la Libertad was to bring a symbolic amount of food for the hungry population of Gaza, mainly rice and formula milk. But above all, his journey represented a symbolic attempt to “open a humanitarian corridor.”
Israel blocks and hinders the entry of humanitarian aid to the strip for months. On March 2, the Benjamín Netanyahu government imposed a total blockade that lasted more than 80 days. The crisis of hunger and scarcity was so serious, with the entire population of the territory (2.1 million people, almost half children), that the Israeli authorities opened the door at the entrance of a limited number of trucks.
However, the amount is insufficient ,. Israeli forces barely allow access to 100 trucks with supplies, although organizations estimate that between 500 or 600 of these vehicles each day to meet the basic needs of the population.
The food lots by the Humanitarian Foundation of Gaza (FHG), backed by Israel and the United States, does not cover the food deficiencies of the Gazati, – more than 100 people have died shot when they went to the FHG distribution points – and, therefore, it does not meet the fundamental humanitarian principles, according to the NGOs and the UN.
