Live, war in Gaza: the "Madleen", a humanitarian boat carrying Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, was "boarded by the Israeli army", according to the NGO, Israel says it "diverted" it

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which chartered the Madleen , denounced it Monday morning as a "clear violation of international law," asserting that the Israeli boarding took place in international waters. "Israel has no legal authority to detain the international volunteers aboard the Madleen ," said its head, Huwaida Arraf.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Monday that the Madleen humanitarian ship has been diverted. The sailboat is "safely heading to the coast of Israel. The passengers are expected to return to their countries," the ministry said in a statement.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which chartered the Madleen humanitarian ship to Gaza, announced early Monday that it had been "boarded by the Israeli military." Israel, for its part, said it had "diverted" it.

"Communication with the Madleen has been lost," the organization said on Telegram, claiming that the crew had been "kidnapped by Israeli forces."

Having left Italy on June ¹ to "break the Israeli blockade," the sailboat was heading for Gaza after a stopover in Egypt, despite Israel's orders to its army to prevent it from reaching the Palestinian territory. According to the last reports at midnight, it was 31 nautical miles (57 km) from Gaza.

On board were Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan from the Ka France Insoumise party. AFP was unable to contact any of the people on board.

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the Occupied Territories reported in a statement published on X Sunday that its field hospital in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, had to "activate its mass casualty procedure 12 times" over the past two weeks, having received a large number of patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds.

The organization said 933 patients were received during this period, 41 of whom were declared dead upon arrival. The overwhelming majority of them "reported having tried to reach aid distribution sites ." The Red Cross added that the "unprecedented rate" at which patients are arriving "has put a strain on and exhausted staff ," saying that "this is jeopardizing the very ability of the field hospital to function."

A series of chaotic and deadly events have occurred in recent days near sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been deployed since late May and is supported by the United States and Israel.

The Israeli army confirmed Sunday that it had identified the body of Mohammed Sinwar, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, who was killed on May 13 in a bombing raid on the Palestinian territory. "Following an identification process, it is now confirmed that the body of Mohammed Sinwar was located in the underground tunnel under the European Hospital in Khan Younis" and "eliminated on May 13" in the southern Gaza Strip, the army said in a statement.

" [Mohammed] Sinouar was eliminated along with Rafah Brigade Commander Mohammad Sabaneh during an operation (…) on May 13, 2025, while he was hiding in an underground command and control center," she added. "During searches in the underground tunnel, several items belonging to Sinouar" were found, as well as "other bodies of terrorists" whose identification is currently being examined, the statement said.

Army spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters on Sunday that Sinwar's body was found "beneath the hospital, just below the emergency room, a compound, and some rooms . " "DNA and other tests" confirmed Sinwar's body, he said. Sinwar's death was announced on May 28 by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

His brother, Yahya Sinwar, the former Hamas supreme leader portrayed as the main architect of Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, was killed in Gaza in October 2024.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said in a statement on Sunday that there had been no incidents or injuries at its three sites that opened on Sunday, adding that it had distributed more than one million meals.

Gaza's Civil Defense reported Sunday morning that "five martyrs and dozens of wounded were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after the occupation opened fire on civilians." "At around 4:30 a.m., people began gathering in the Al-Alam area of ​​Rafah, and after about an hour and a half, hundreds of people advanced [toward the distribution site], but the army opened fire," resident Abdallah Nour Al-Din told AFP.

In the courtyard of Nasser Hospital, an AFP video showed dozens of people weeping around blood-stained white plastic shrouds. The army, contacted by AFP, claimed to have fired on people who, despite warnings, "continued to advance in a manner that endangered the soldiers." A series of chaotic and deadly events have occurred in recent days near the sites of the GHF, deployed since the end of May and supported by the United States and Israel.

The Gaza Health Ministry warned on Sunday that the fuel shortage affecting hospitals in the Palestinian territory was reaching a "critical" level, fearing that they would no longer be able to operate their generators in the coming hours, which would mean the "paralysis of services" and "endangering the lives of patients."

Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Arabi hospitals in Gaza City are likely to cease operations within the next 24 hours. The ministry points out that these two hospitals are treating the wounded and sick from Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, following the shutdown of other hospitals in the area. Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis (south) is functioning, but its fuel supply will only last two days. The minister calls on "the parties concerned to exert pressure" on Israel to allow the entry of fuel.

Israel carried out a strike in southern Syria on Sunday, killing one person and wounding two others, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). The UK-based NGO said a vehicle was hit in Mazraat Beit Jinn, a town near the UN-monitored buffer zone. The Israeli army, for its part, said it had "neutralized a Hamas terrorist in the Mazraat Beit Jinn area."

Since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Israel has carried out hundreds of bombing raids on Syrian territory, targeting military sites, and has deployed forces in the demilitarized buffer zone of the Golan Heights, on the edge of the occupied part of the plateau, and in southern Syria. The Israeli government claims to want to prevent the weapons of the ousted regime from falling into the hands of the new Islamist authorities, whom the Israeli government sees as an enemy.

The humanitarian ship Madleen, en route to Gaza to "break the Israeli blockade" , will continue its journey despite Israel's order to its army to prevent it from reaching the Palestinian territory, activists on board, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, said on Sunday.

"We will remain mobilized until the last minute - until Israel cuts off the internet and networks," said left-wing Franco-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan, contacted by Agence France-Presse on board the Madleen, currently in Egyptian waters.

"We are not afraid" of the Israelis, said German activist Yasemin Acar, one of the twelve passengers. "The message they are sending us (...) does not make us back down," she added. On X, the activists called on their governments to protect them. "We are twelve civilians (...) unarmed," stressed ^Ms. Hassan, an elected representative of La France Insoumise.

On X, the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, gave his support to the humanitarian ship Madleen while Israel ordered the army to prevent its arrival. "The accusation by Defense Minister Katz is ridiculous. The ship is not carrying weapons to Hamas. Its vocation is humanitarian. Support for the Freedom Flotilla," he wrote.

Earlier, the "insoumise" MP Mathilde Panot had declared that the flotilla was approaching the Gaza Strip. "Let's not take our eyes off them to demand safe passage for the crew and humanitarian aid!" she declared on X.

For her part, the Franco-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan, who is on board the boat, posted "We will not turn back" on the same social network.

The Palestinian news agency WAFa reported the death of two people on Sunday in Israeli raids on Deir Al-Balah (center) and Khan Younes (south), in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Sunday via Telegram that he had ordered the military to prevent the arrival of the humanitarian ship Madleen , carrying activists including Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg and French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan, in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

"I have instructed the IDF to prevent the Madleen ship from reaching Gaza. To Greta the anti-Semite and her companions, mouthpieces of the propaganda of [Palestinian Islamist movement] Hamas, I say clearly: turn back because you will not reach Gaza," Katz said in a statement from his office.

"The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade of Gaza, the primary purpose of which is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas, a murderous terrorist organization that is holding our hostages and committing war crimes ," Katz added. "Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or to assist terrorist organizations, by sea, air, or land."

The Madleen , a sailing ship from the Freedom Flotilla coalition, left Sicily on Sunday for Gaza, to deliver humanitarian aid and "break the Israeli blockade" imposed on the Palestinian territory threatened by famine, according to the United Nations. "We are currently sailing off the Egyptian coast," German human rights activist Yasemin Acar told Agence France-Presse on Saturday , adding that everything was "fine." The Madleen is carrying "fruit juice, milk, rice, canned goods, protein bars donated by hundreds of citizens of Catania," according to journalist Andrea Legni, who boarded the ship.

The Gaza Civil Defense announced on Sunday the deaths of ten people, including two minors, in Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territory, where the war has entered its ^21st month. "Five martyrs and dozens of wounded were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after the occupation opened fire on civilians at around 6 a.m. [local time]," Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the relief organization, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

According to him, these people were going to an aid distribution center west of Rafah, where one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites is located. (GHF), an organization with opaque funding supported by the United States and Israel, with which the UN refuses to work.

Asked by AFP, the army claimed to have fired on people who, despite warnings, "continued to advance in a way that endangered the soldiers." It added that the area around the distribution site had been publicly declared an "active night combat zone."

"At around 4:30 a.m., people started gathering in the Al-Alam area of ​​Rafah, and after about an hour and a half, hundreds of people advanced [toward the distribution site] , but the army opened fire," Abdallah Nour Al-Din, a witness at the scene, told AFP. In the courtyard of Nasser Hospital, where rescuers say they brought the bodies, an AFP video shows dozens of people weeping around white plastic shrouds stained with blood.

In his report, Mr. Bassal also reported five deaths, including two girls, in a strike that occurred around 1 a.m. on a home in the Al-Mawassi displaced persons camp in the southern Gaza Strip.

The surest way to oust Hamas from the Gaza Strip would be to oppose it with a credible Palestinian alternative, an option categorically rejected by Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli Prime Minister fears that a return to Gaza of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah would revive the "two-state solution . "

The Israeli army therefore relied on certain Gaza clans, hoping that these traditional structures could counterbalance Hamas. This overlooked the fact that such solidarity networks had been profoundly weakened by the constant displacement imposed on the population, and that they were incapable of uniting to counter the Islamist movement throughout the enclave.

Leo Correa/AP

The Israeli government and its army long believed they knew everything about Gaza, thanks to the constant surveillance carried out by drones and the sometimes systematic interception of local communications. They were convinced that this would compensate for the lack of any contact among the population of Gaza, which their "scorched earth" policy, following the withdrawal of the army and settlers in 2005, had brought about.

The Israeli army accused the main spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defense, a rescue organization in the Palestinian territory, on Sunday via Telegram of being an "active terrorist" for the Islamist movement Hamas, after analyzing "documents found during operations in the Gaza Strip" - something the person concerned, Mahmoud Bassal, denied to Agence France-Presse.

Copies of documents presented by the army as lists of Hamas members were released to the media, without specifying the circumstances under which the military discovered these undated documents. The army accuses Mr. Bassal of spreading false information about Israel's operations in Gaza to "serve the war aims" of Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, and the European Union.

"This is a false accusation," Mahmoud Bassal told AFP. "I don't work for any military organization," he added, stressing that the Civil Defense mission was governed by international law, he said. The Civil Defense is an organization that has existed for decades and employs rescue workers in the Gaza Strip, notably to transport bomb victims to hospitals after Israeli strikes, as evidenced by multiple AFP photos and videos showing women and children killed or injured.

Civil Defense is regularly cited by international media in its coverage of the war in the Gaza Strip. Given media restrictions and the difficulties of accessing the ground as the fighting spreads, it is virtually impossible to independently confirm the death tolls and circumstances of the deaths reported by Civil Defense.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched through the streets of Rome on Saturday to protest the war in Gaza, in a rally organized by the opposition to the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni, accused of "complicity."

"Stop the massacre, stop the complicity," read a large banner held by the protesters amid a sea of ​​Palestinian flags and "Free Palestine" signs. The demonstration drew 300,000 people, according to organizers, an estimate "largely confirmed" by police, according to the AGI news agency.

The leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, described the large turnout as a "huge popular response." Other left-wing parties, including the Five Star Movement, also led the protest.

The demonstration aimed to "say stop to the massacre of Palestinians, to say enough about the crimes of Netanyahu's far-right government" and to show the world "another Italy," ^Schlein told reporters.

Rome, a loyal supporter of Israel since the beginning of the conflict, has raised its voice in recent weeks in the face of the intense bombing in Gaza, with the head of government, Giorgia Meloni, denouncing an "increasingly dramatic and unjustifiable" humanitarian situation.

At least one person was killed and two others wounded Saturday evening when the Israeli army opened fire in the town of Ad-Dhahiriya, in the southern West Bank governorate of Hebron, the Palestinian news agency WAFa reported.

The Israeli army announced Saturday evening that it had carried out an operation in Gaza City during which it said it had killed Assaad Abu Sharia, leader of the Kataeb Al-Mujahideen organization. According to the army, he participated in "the attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he was one of the main instigators of the massacre, and was directly involved in the kidnapping and murder of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas," a family that has become the symbol of the hostage tragedy in Israel, as well as in that of the Thai hostage brought from Gaza to Israel on Saturday, according to its statement published on X.