An Israeli solider passes a bun to Greta Thunberg onboard the Gaza-bound British-flagged yacht “Madleen” after Israeli forces boarded the charity vessel as it attempted to reach the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade, in this still image released on June 9, 2025. Photo: Israel Foreign Ministry via Reuters
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and the group of international activists traveling with her on a boat to the Gaza Strip will be shown footage of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attack after Israeli forces intercepted their vessel, Israel’s Defense Minster Israel Katz said on Monday.
Katz also called Thunberg an antisemite in a post on X and described all those aboard the ship as supporters of Hamas, the internationally designated terrorist organization that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades and initiated the current war raging in the Middle East after massacring 1,200 people, wounding thousands more, and taking 251 hostages during its invasion of southern Israel.
The Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists also perpetrated widespread sexual violence, including torture and mass gang-rape, against Israelis during their onslaught.
“I instructed the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to show the flotilla passengers the video of the horrors of the October 7 massacre when they arrive at the port of Ashdod,” Katz wrote. “It is appropriate that the antisemitic Greta 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.”
“The IDF will continue its war against the Hamas murderers with all its moral righteousness until they are subdued, all the hostages are released, and the security of the State of Israel is ensured,” Katz added.
Israeli forces boarded and seized the Madleen, operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FCC), during the early hours of Monday morning after Thunberg, 22, and the others on board tried to break the naval blockade of Gaza. Katz said on Sunday he instructed Israeli forces to stop the Madleen flotilla from reaching Gaza “and to take whatever measures are necessary to that end.”
“Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or assist terrorist organizations – at sea, in the air, and on land,” he added.
Israel imposed a naval blockade on Gaza in 2007, after Hamas seized control of the coastal enclave, in an effort to stop the Palestinian terrorist organization from obtaining weapons. The blockade has remained in place throughout the Israel-Hamas war that started 20 months ago, but in March, Israel also sealed off Gaza by land to further cut off Hamas from obtaining aid. Israel has let into Gaza some food to be distributed to civilians over the past two weeks.
The group of activists aboard the Madleen said they hoped to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and raise international awareness about the humanitarian crisis there. Israel dismissed their efforts, described them as merely a stunt.
“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,” said Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip — they do not involve Instagram selfies.”
Israel released a video showing Israeli naval forces handing out water and sandwiches to those aboard the FCC after seizing the vessel. Among those on board was Rima Hassan, a French member of the European parliament. The Jewish community in France lambasted Hassan last year for arguing that French-Palestinians must be able to join the “Palestinian armed resistance” if their French-Israeli counterparts are allowed to serve in the IDF.
“The ‘selfie yacht’ is safely making its way to the shores of Israel … The passengers are safe,” read a post on Israel’s official account on X. The post also noted that the “tiny amount” of humanitarian aid aboard the vessel, that wasn’t consumed by the activists on board, will be transferred to Gaza “through real humanitarian channels.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that when the yacht arrives at the Israeli port, arrangements will be made for the activists to return to their home countries.
Hassan posted on X that the crew on the ship were “arrested by the Israeli army in international waters around 2 am” on Monday. She shared a photo of all the crew members wearing orange life vests with their hands in the air as Israeli forces seized control of the ship.
“If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel,” Thunberg, said in a video released by the FCC, filmed before the vessel was captured. “I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”
Widely known for her campaign to end climate change, Swedish-born Thunberg has increasingly become a vocal anti-Israel activist, expressing solidarity with “Palestine and Gaza” less than two weeks after the Oct. 7 massacre, before the Israeli military even launched its ground offensive in Gaza. Thunberg did not denounce Hamas or mention the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities.
Then in November 2023, the young activist encountered a storm of criticism from politicians and Jewish leaders, some of whom accused her of being antisemitic, over a speech she delivered to a rally in Amsterdam that sought to insert opposition to Israel’s defensive war in Gaza into the environmentalist movement’s agenda.
Last year, Danish police detained Thunberg at a Copenhagen protest against the war in Gaza and Israel’s presence in the West Bank.
The post Greta Thunberg, Fellow Activists on Gaza-Bound Flotilla to Be Shown Oct. 7 Footage, Israel’s Defense Minister Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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