Israel says to block Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg

Israel on Sunday ordered the military to stop a humanitarian ship carrying activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, breaking the blockade of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

"I have instructed the military to prevent the Madleen flotilla from reaching Gaza," Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement from his office.

"Turn back because you will not reach Gaza," Katz added, calling the activists "Hamas propaganda mouthpieces".

The Madleen, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Italy on June 1 with the aim of delivering aid and challenging the Israeli blockade, which has been in place for years even before the Israel-Hamas war since October 2023.

Organisers said Saturday the vessel had entered Egyptian waters and was nearing Gaza, where the war has entered its 21st month.

Aboard the boat are nationals of Germany, France, Brazil, Turkey, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands.

One of them, European Parliament member Rima Hassan, has said that more than 200 European lawmakers signed an open letter to Israel calling for the Madleen to be allowed to reach Gaza and for the "immediate entry of its
humanitarian cargo".

Katz said that "Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade of Gaza, which is aimed at preventing weapons from reaching Hamas -- a murderous terrorist group holding our hostages and committing war crimes."

In May, another Freedom Flotilla ship, the Conscience, reported coming under drone attack.

Israeli fire near food distribution site 

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said Israeli attacks killed at least 10 people on Sunday.

"Five martyrs and dozens of wounded were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis after the (Israeli) occupation forces opened fire on civilians at around 6:00 am", said Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency.

The civilians had been heading to an aid distribution centre west of Rafah, in southern Gaza, witnesses and Bassal said, near a site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed group that has come under criticism from the United Nations and humanitarian agencies.

The United Nations refuses to work with the GHF, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality.

The Israeli military said it fired on people who "continued advancing in a way that endangered the soldiers" despite warnings.

"Around 4:30 am, people started gathering in the Al-Alam area of Rafah.
After about an hour and a half, hundreds moved toward the site and the army opened fire," witness Abdallah Nour al-Din told AFP.

The GHF said in a statement there had been no incidents or injuries "at any of our three sites" on Sunday.

It said it had distributed more than a million meals, including more than 600,000 through a trial of "direct to community distribution" via "community leaders".

AFP photographers in central Gaza saw crowds of Palestinians leaving a GHF facility on foot carrying boxes with the group's logo on them.

Five dead in strike on tent 

Outside Nasser Hospital, where the emergency workers brought the casualties, AFPTV footage showed mourners crying over blood-stained body bags.
"I can't see you like this," said Lin al-Daghma by her father's body.

She and another man gave the same account as Nour al-Din, and spoke of the struggle to access food aid after more than two months of a total Israeli blockade of Gaza, despite a recent easing.

The UN has repeatedly warned of famine in Gaza.

Dozens of people have been killed near GHF distribution points since late May, according to the civil defence agency.

Bassal also said another five people, including two young girls, were killed in an overnight strike that hit a tent in the Al-Mawasi displaced persons camp in southern Gaza.

Israel's army on Sunday accused Bassal of having links to Hamas, an allegation he denied.

The army issued copies of what it said were Hamas membership lists to the media, without clarifying where or how the undated documents were obtained.

"I do not work for any military organisation," Bassal told AFP, adding that the agency's mission was guided by international law.

The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

On Sunday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that the death toll for the Gaza war had reached 54,880, the majority civilians. The UN considers these figures reliable.