The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted the Madleen, a boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, who were trying to land in Gaza but were detained Monday local time without incident.
The Israeli foreign ministry shared video of the activists on the boat, as IDF soldiers handed out sandwiches.
The foreign ministry dubbed the boat the “selfie yacht,” mocking the passengers as useful idiots for Hamas.
The activists had claimed that the Israeli military had been targeting their boat with signal-jamming technology, but what they described — having their location show up on GPS maps as being on land in an Arab capital — is a common experience among Israelis since Hamas launched its war on October 7. Israel jams GPS signals near its borders to confuse drones and rockets fired by Hamas and other terrorist groups.
The Times of Israel noted:
The ministry [foreign] says Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and the others aboard Madleen “attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity.”
The boat was carrying “less than a single truckload of aid,” it says, noting that “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.”
“There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip — they do not involve Instagram selfies. 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,” the ministry adds.
The activists had hoped to reach Gaza and, in doing so, to encourage other ships to do the same. Unlike the Mavi Marmara, where passengers battled Israeli naval commandos in 2010, the Madleen was not carrying weapons.
Thunberg made a nearly seamless transition from a youthful career in radical climate change activism to radical anti-Israel activism, becoming a fellow traveler with antisemitic groups, keffiyeh and all.
She and the other passengers will be returned to their countries of origin, according to the Israeli government.
