A ship carrying aid to Gaza, carrying 12 activists including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, has reached the Egyptian coast and is approaching the besieged Palestinian territory, organisers said today.
The ship Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with a cargo of aid to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
“We are now sailing along the Egyptian coast. We are all well,” German human rights activist Yasemin Acar told AFP.
In a statement issued from London today, the International Committee to Break the Siege of Gaza – a member organisation of the Flotilla coalition – said the ship had entered Egyptian waters.
The group said it remained in contact with international legal and human rights bodies to ensure the safety of those on board, warning that any interception would constitute, it said, a clear violation of international humanitarian law.
MEP Rima Hassan, who is on board, called on governments to guarantee safe passage for the Freedom Flotilla.
The Palestinian territories have been under an Israeli naval blockade since before the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war, and Israel has enforced its blockade through military action in the past.
A commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in 2010, which was part of a similar aid flotilla trying to break the blockade, killed ten civilians.
In May, another Freedom Flotilla ship, the Conscience, reported a drone attack while en route to Gaza, prompting Cyprus and Malta to send rescue ships in response to its distress call. There were no reports of casualties.
During its voyage, the Madleen changed course near the Greek island of Crete after receiving a distress signal from a sinking migrant boat.
Activists rescued four Sudanese migrants who jumped into the sea to avoid being returned to Libya. They were later transferred to an EU Frontex ship.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, founded in 2010, is a group that opposes the humanitarian blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel on March 2.
Israel is facing growing international condemnation over the humanitarian crisis in the territory, where the United Nations has warned that more than two million people are at risk of starvation.
