The Israel Defense Forces intercepted a Freedom Flotilla Coalition boat carrying pro-Palestine activists, including Greta Thunberg, late Sunday. Thunberg and her fellow passengers were attempting to deliver aid to Gaza.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition was sailing the boat, named the “Madleen” to “Gaza to challenge Israel’s ongoing blockade” and deliver humanitarian aid, according to the activist group that has pledged to “sail until Palestine is free.”
“Greta’s selfie-float is liberal virtue signaling at its worst,” Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., told The Daily Signal. “Her complaint was that Hamas was no longer in charge of aid distribution, so she essentially went on a dark money-paid yacht cruise to support Muslim terror.”
Members of the crew aboard the Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship regularly shared selfie-style videos from the boat during their voyage toward Gaza.
“I hope the IDF can recover the laptops and phones that were tossed overboard by the activists as they approached,” Fine said. “They will prove what is obvious: Greta Thunberg is a Muslim terrorist working with Hamas.”
A voice can be heard yelling, “Ditch the phone,” in a video from the boat of activists circulated by the BBC.
Upon being intercepted, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition released videos of Thunberg, who is best known for her climate activism, claiming she and the other activists have been “kidnapped.”
“If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel,” Thunberg said in the video message that appears to have prerecorded.
Thunberg, 22, is a Swedish citizen and urged all her “friends, family, and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible,” she said.
Early Monday, Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz congratulated the IDF for its “quick and safe takeover of the ‘Madleen’ flotilla,” which prevented the activists from “breaking the blockade and reaching the shores of Gaza.”
Katz says he has “instructed the IDF to show the flotilla passengers the video of the horrors of the Oct. 7 massacre when they arrive at the Port of Ashdod,” one of Israel’s main ports.
“It is appropriate that the antisemitic Greta [Thunberg] and her fellow Hamas supporters see exactly who the Hamas terrorist organization they came to support and for whom they work is, what atrocities they committed against women, the elderly, and children, and against whom Israel is fighting to defend itself,” Katz wrote on X.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry referred to the boat carrying the activists as a “selfie yacht,” in a post on X, noting that the passengers will be sent home to their own countries following their arrival in Israel.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry says Thunberg and the other passengers have been provided with food and water, sharing a photo of Thunberg being handed a sandwich.
“More than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks, and close to 11 million meals were transferred by the [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] directly to civilians in Gaza,” according to the Foreign Ministry.
