Climate activist Greta Thunberg stands near a Palestinian flag after boarding the Madleen boat and before setting sail for Gaza along with activists of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, departing from the Sicilian port of Catania, Italy, June 1, 2025
ISRAEL’S far-right defence minister vowed today to prevent an aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists from reaching the Gaza Strip.
The remarks by Israel Katz comes as the Israelis continue to carry out their attacks on Palestinians desperately seeking aid in Gaza.
Mr Katz said today that Israel wouldn’t allow anyone to break its naval blockade of the Palestinian territory, which he said was aimed at preventing Hamas from importing arms.
“To the anti-semitic Greta and her fellow Hamas propagandists — I will say this clearly: You should turn back, because you will not make it to Gaza,” he said in a statement.
Ms Thunberg, a climate campaigner, is among 12 activists aboard the Madleen, which is operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. The vessel departed Sicily last Sunday on a mission that aims to break the sea blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave.
The vessel was expected to reach Gaza’s territorial waters this evening.
After a three-month total blockade aimed at pressuring Hamas, Israel started allowing some basic aid into Gaza last month, but humanitarian workers have warned of famine unless the blockade and the war end.
An attempt last month by Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza by sea failed after another of the group’s vessels was attacked by two drones while sailing in international waters off Malta. The group blamed Israel for the attack, which damaged the front section of the ship.
Meanwhile, the Joint Action for Palestine Co-ordination Committee in Tunisia says that a land convoy will pass through Libya and Egypt on its way to Gaza with much-needed aid.
Thousands of volunteers will set off from several cities in Tunisia towards the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, demanding entrance, the Wafa news agency reports.
The convoy includes at least 7,000 people, an organiser told Wafa.
In Gaza, Palestinian health officials and witnesses say at least five people were killed and others were wounded by Israeli fire as they headed toward two aid distribution points in the Gaza Strip run by an Israeli and United States-backed group.
Israel’s military claimed it fired warning shots at people who approached its forces.
Four bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis. Palestinian witnesses there said Israeli forces had fired on them at a roundabout that is around half-a-mile from a site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the nearby city of Rafah.
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