She was kidnapped in international waters by Israeli forces unlawfully and unethically
An independent United Nations commission has said that Israeli attacks on schools, religious and cultural sites in Gaza amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of seeking to exterminate Palestinians, AFP reports.
The Madleen, which was attempting to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza, was towed to Israel’s Ashdod Port.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed that the crew, which includes Al Jazeera correspondent Omar Fayyad, will be deported shortly.
Earlier, Israeli naval forces had seized the Madleen, a civilian aid vessel headed for Gaza, in international waters approximately 185km from the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The ship, organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and registered in the United Kingdom, was intercepted early Monday.
Read: Aid ship bound for Gaza hit by drones, catches fire off Malta
Video footage taken before communication was lost shows the unarmed crew—activists and journalists from across Europe and the Americas—seated with hands raised as Israeli commandos boarded the ship. The vessel was reportedly carrying essential supplies, including food, baby formula, and medical items.
“Israel has obliterated Gaza’s education system and destroyed over half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip,” the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a report.
It accused Israeli forces of “war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing, in their attacks on educational facilities that caused civilian casualties. In killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination.”
It noted: “While the destruction of cultural property, including educational facilities, was not in itself a genocidal act, evidence of such conduct may nevertheless infer genocidal intent to destroy a protected group.”
The commission urged the Israeli government to stop attacking cultural, religious and educational institutions and called on Israel to “immediately end its unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory”, cease all settlement activity and comply fully with provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice
The United States has imposed sanctions targeting individuals and sham charities that it said were prominent financial supporters of the Palestinian groups Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Reuters reports.
The individuals and groups targeted were funding Hamas’ military wing under the pretense of doing humanitarian work, in Gaza and internationally, the Treasury Department said.
The Treasury said it will continue to seek disruptions to the financial capabilities of Hamas, which still holds hostages it seized in the group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Israeli foreign minister says UK sanctions on ministers is ‘unacceptable’
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says the decision by Britain to sanction two Israeli ministers is “outrageous”, Reuters reports.
Saar told reporters that the government would hold a special meeting early next week to decide how to respond to the “unacceptable decision”.
Britain and other international allies will formally sanction two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, following their conduct over the war on Gaza, the Times newspaper has reported
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists taking part in a convoy have crossed the Tunisian border into Libya, aiming to keep heading eastwards until they break Israel’s blockade on the Palestinian territory, according to the organisers, AFP reported.
The “Soumoud” convoy, meaning “steadfastness” in Arabic, set off from Tunis yesterday morning, spokesman Ghassen Henchiri told Tunisian radio station Mosaique FM.
He said it includes 14 buses and around 100 other vehicles, carrying hundreds of people.
Convoy members were heard chanting “Resistance, resistance” and “To Gaza we go by the millions” in a video posted on the organising group’s official Facebook page.
Henchiri has also told Jawhara FM radio channel the convoy plans to remain in Libya for “three or four days at most” before crossing into Egypt and continuing on to Rafah.
Organisers have said Egyptian authorities have not yet provided passage to enter the country, but Henchiri said the convoy received “reassuring” information.
Organisers said the convoy was not bringing aid into Gaza, but rather aimed at carrying out a “symbolic act” by breaking the blockade on the territory described by the United Nations as “the hungriest place on Earth”.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola received an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester on Tuesday and used his acceptance speech to address the Gaza bombardment, Reuters reports.
“It’s so painful what we see in Gaza. It hurts my whole body,” Guardiola said.
“It’s not about ideology. It’s not about whether I’m right or you’re wrong. It’s just about the love of life, about the care of your neighbour.
“Maybe we think that we see the boys and girls of four years old being killed by the bomb, or being killed at the hospital because it’s not a hospital anymore. It’s not our business.
“But be careful. The next four-or five-year-old kids will be ours. Sorry, but I see my kids, Maria, Marius and Valentina. When I see every morning since the nightmare started, the infants in Gaza, and I’m so scared.”
Britain and other international allies are set to formally sanction two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, in response to the bombardment in Gaza, Reuters reported, citing the Times.
Israeli gunfire has killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded dozens as thousands of displaced people approached an aid distribution site of a US-backed humanitarian group in central Gaza, local health authorities said, according to Reuters.
Medics has said the casualties were rushed at two hospitals, the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza and Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, to the north.
The Israeli military said its forces fired warning shots at “suspects who were advancing in the area of Wadi Gaza and posed a threat to the troops”.
It added that it was aware of reports that several were injured, but argued that numbers released by local health authorities did not align with the information they collected.
“The warning shots were fired hundreds of meters from the aid distribution site, prior to its opening hours and toward the suspects who posed a threat to the troops,” the military added.
The Al-Amal Hospital in Gaza, one of the few still operating in the Palestinian territory, is now “virtually out of service” due to intense military activity, AFP reports quoting the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“Access to the hospital is obstructed, preventing new patients from reaching care, and leading to more preventable deaths,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X.
Tedros said two emergency medical teams, one local, the other international, “are still doing their best to serve the remaining patients with the limited medical supplies left on the premises”.
“With the closure of Al-Amal, Nasser Medical Complex is now the only remaining hospital with an intensive care unit in Khan Younis,” he said.
France says it has obtained new commitments from the Palestinian Authority to reform, ahead of a conference next week at which Paris could become the most prominent Western power to back recognition of an independent Palestinian state, Reuters reports.
French President Emmanuel Macron has received a letter from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in which he condemns the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack against Israel, calls on all captives to be released and pledges further reforms, the Elysee Palace has said.
The letter to Macron, who is working on organising an international conference with Saudi Arabia to discuss recognition of Palestine, contains “unprecedented” pledges, Macron’s office said, without elaborating.
“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza and must hand over its weapons and military capabilities to the Palestinian Security Forces, which will oversee their removal outside the Occupied Palestinian territory, with Arab and international support,” the French leader’s office quoted Abbas as having written in the letter.
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg departed Israel on Tuesday after being detained aboard the Madleen, a Gaza-bound aid ship intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters, the Israeli foreign ministry said.
Thunberg was on a flight to France, where she would continue her journey to Sweden, the ministry said, according to Reuters.
Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They will be held in a detention centre ahead of a court hearing.
US President Donald Trump said Iran is involved in negotiations aimed at arranging a ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas, Reuters reports.
“Gaza right now is in the midst of a massive negotiation between us and Hamas and Israel, and Iran actually is involved, and we’ll see what’s going to happen with Gaza. We want to get the hostages back,” Trump told reporters during an event in the White House State Dining Room.
Trump did not elaborate and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for details of Iran’s involvement. The United States has proposed a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The United Nations said that it has only been able to bring minimal flour into Gaza since Israel lifted an aid blockade three weeks ago and that has mostly been looted by armed gangs or taken by starving Palestinians, reports Reuters.
The organisation has transported 4,600 metric tonnes of wheat flour into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing, the only entry point Israel allows it to use, Deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters.
Haq said aid groups in Gaza estimate that between 8,000 and 10,000 metric tonnes of wheat flour were needed to give each family in Gaza a bag of flour and “ease the pressure on markets and reduce desperation.”
“Most of it was taken by desperate, starving people before the supplies reached their destinations. In some cases, the supplies were looted by armed gangs,” Haq said.
Haq called for Israel to let in far more aid via multiple crossings and routes.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg and other activists detained aboard the Gaza-bound aid boat Madleen have been taken to a Tel Aviv airport for deportation, says Israel, after their vessel was intercepted by naval forces, AFP reports.
Israeli forces intercepted the boat in international waters yesterday and towed it to the port of Ashdod.“The passengers of the ‘Selfie Yacht’ arrived at Ben Gurion Airport to depart from Israel and return to their home countries,” the Israeli foreign ministry said on X.
“Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority.”
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the activist group operating the vessel, said all 12 campaigners were “being processed and transferred into the custody of Israeli authorities”.
“They may be permitted to fly out of Tel Aviv as early as tonight,” it said on social media.
