Israel vowed on Sunday to stop an aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists on board from reaching Gaza. <\/p>\n
As of Sunday evening, the UK-flagged civilian vessel was north of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, slowly approaching the coast of Gaza. The \u201cMadleen\u201d is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an organization that has campaigned against Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza and tried to break the siege by boat. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut of course none of those risks are even remotely as high as the risk that Palestinians are facing everyday just by trying to survive.\u201d <\/p>\n
Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated that the Madleen, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, would not make it to the besieged enclave. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have instructed the IDF to ensure that the \u2018Madleen\u2019 flotilla does not reach Gaza,\u201d said Katz in a statement, referring to the name of the ship. <\/p>\n
Katz warned the ship that \u201cyou\u2019d better turn back \u2013 because you will not reach Gaza.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still on our way to Gaza. There\u2019s no turning back, and we\u2019re hoping to make it into Gaza within two days,\u201d Acar said. <\/p>\n
The coalition campaigns to end Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza and has tried to reach the enclave several times in the past <\/p>\n
After an 11-week blockade that prevented any humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, Israel has begun allowing a trickle of aid in once again. <\/p>\n
But it is only a fraction of the aid that entered the enclave before the war, with humanitarian organizations warning of a worsening humanitarian crisis and the growing risk of widespread famine. <\/p>\n
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, said on social media that the flotilla carries more than food. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not only the aid, it is the HUMANITY THEY CARRY. For all of us,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The crew, which has publicized the location of the ship with an online tracker, began preparing for the possibility of interception by the Israeli military. <\/p>\n
Among those joining the crew are Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament, and \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d actor Liam Cunningham. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom both a legal and moral standpoint, Israel has no right to intercept this vessel,\u201d the group said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of Gaza, under siege, starving, and facing the threat of annihilation, have the legal right to decide who enters their territories.\u201d <\/p>\n
Last month, another vessel from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition came under what its organizers said was an Israeli drone attack off the coast of Malta in international waters. The group did not provide evidence that the drone was Israeli, while the Israeli military has declined to comment on the alleged attack. <\/p>\n
The ship, the \u201cConscience,\u201d was heading to Malta, where a large contingent of activists were due to board before it departed for Gaza, more than 1,000 miles away, but had not made it into port, the group said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Israel vowed on Sunday to stop an aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists on board from reaching Gaza. As of Sunday evening, the UK-flagged civilian vessel was north of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, slowly approaching the coast of Gaza. The \u201cMadleen\u201d is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an organization that has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}