Israel is planning to force the 12 activists who were onboard the Gaza aid flotilla vessel that the Israeli military seized to watch footage of Hamas’s October 7 attack, according to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.
The 12 crew members, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, were captured by Israeli forces early Monday morning and are reportedly being taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
“I have instructed the IDF to screen the October 7 massacre atrocity video for the flotilla passengers when they arrive at the Ashdod port,” Katz wrote on X. “It is fitting that the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-supporting friends see exactly who the Hamas terrorist organization is, which they came to support and for whom they are acting.”
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the group behind the effort to break Israel’s starvation blockade on Gaza, said it hasn’t heard from the crew since the Israeli military boarded the Madleen.
“It’s been 15 hours since we last saw or heard from our friends and comrades. We have not been allowed any contact,” the FFC wrote on Telegram.
“Of course, Israeli media alledge that no volunteers have been harmed. But the psychological impact of being forcibly abducted by a military force that is conducting a genocide in Gaza and other war crimes across the world, as well as being cut off from friends, family, and FFC colleagues, is illegal, beyond distressing and an attack on solidarity,” the FFC added.
The FFC has been releasing pre-recorded videos from the activists who were onboard the Madleen. “My name is Greta Thunberg and I am from Sweden. 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 one video.
“I urge all my friends, family, and colleagues to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me as soon as possible,” the Swedish activist added.
Israel has a history of attacking boats attempting to break its blockade of Gaza. Back in 2010, Israeli commandos raided six Freedom Flotilla boats and killed 10 Turkish activists. Just last month, an Israeli drone hit another Freedom Flotilla boat, the Conscience, when it was off the coast of Malta.
