By admin 
Greta Thunberg has said she was abducted by Israeli forces after a flotilla of civilian boats carrying aid to Gaza was intercepted at sea, releasing a pre-recorded video in which she declares she has been taken against her will as troops boarded vessels and detained hundreds of activists. The footage emerged as governments and protest…
Greta Thunberg has said she was abducted by Israeli forces after a flotilla of civilian boats carrying aid to Gaza was intercepted at sea, releasing a pre-recorded video in which she declares she has been taken against her will as troops boarded vessels and detained hundreds of activists.
The footage emerged as governments and protest groups across several continents reacted to Israel’s operation against the Global Sumud flotilla, which organisers said comprised more than 40 small craft with around 500 people on board, including parliamentarians, lawyers and campaigners from Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Israeli officials said the passengers were in good health and would be deported in the coming days after being brought ashore at the southern port of Ashdod, while insisting that the convoy was attempting to breach a lawful blockade and approach what they described as an active combat zone.
Thunberg’s video, which her team prepared to be posted if communications from the boat were cut, opens with her identifying herself and stating: “If you are watching this video, I have been abducted and taken against my will by Israeli forces.”
She adds that the group’s “humanitarian mission was non-violent and abiding by international law,” framing the interception as an unlawful seizure in international waters.
The 22-year-old Swedish activist, who rose to prominence as a teenager for school strikes and blunt appeals to world leaders to act on climate change, had joined the voyage after weeks of plans by maritime solidarity groups to challenge Israel’s naval restrictions and deliver food and medicine by sea.
Israel’s foreign ministry said footage shot by its personnel showed Thunberg on deck under guard during the boarding operation and that all passengers were being processed before removal to immigration custody and eventual flights to European destinations.
Officials characterised the flotilla as a provocation and said one remaining craft was still at a distance but would be stopped if it attempted to approach. The military said it had repeatedly warned the convoy that it was nearing a closed area and that any aid should be routed through authorised channels rather than by sea.
Activists on several boats had kept live streams running until signals dropped, showing armed personnel in helmets boarding in darkness and passengers wearing life vests with hands visible.
Organisers reported that more than 450 volunteers were detained as ships were stopped roughly 70 to 80 nautical miles from Gaza’s coast, with some passengers transferred onto a larger vessel before being taken to shore.
They said at least one boat, named by supporters as the Marinette, continued under way farther out and was still broadcasting positions after most of the flotilla had been intercepted.
Other accounts suggested a separate craft briefly crossed into Gaza’s territorial waters before being forced back, a claim Israel did not confirm. By Thursday evening, legal groups working with the convoy said detainees were bound for the Ketziot complex in the Negev prior to deportation.
The operation triggered demonstrations in European capitals and major cities elsewhere. Marches brought thousands onto streets in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, while groups in Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Karachi rallied in solidarity with the passengers.
Italy’s foreign minister said he had been given assurances that there had been no violence in the boarding and indicated that expulsion flights for Italian nationals could begin early next week.
South Africa’s president called for the immediate release of his country’s citizens on board, including a grandson of Nelson Mandela. Turkey’s president condemned what he called thuggery against a mission that had sought to highlight hunger and deprivation in Gaza.
Thunberg’s participation ensured worldwide attention. In June she had previously been detained and deported by Israel after joining an earlier small boat that was stopped en route to Gaza; she returned to Europe through Paris after that episode, where she told reporters she would continue to back maritime efforts to deliver aid.
In the months since, flotilla organisers have regrouped repeatedly, assembling a larger convoy and publicising their route from Mediterranean ports, while Israel signalled that its navy would again prevent any attempt to reach Gaza by sea.
The activist’s supporters have argued that her visibility acts as a shield for lesser-known passengers, while opponents accuse her of lending star power to a public relations stunt that complicates wartime security operations.
Israel’s position has remained that the blockade is a long-standing and lawful measure that prevents weapons and material support reaching Hamas by sea, and that humanitarian supplies should go through land crossings under inspection.
Officials said the convoy had been warned to divert and offered to transfer its cargo through approved channels. Activists reject that framework, saying that years of restrictions have left Gaza in deep crisis and that a civil fleet was necessary to bring attention to conditions as well as to deliver medicine and infant formula directly.
Several governments that did not endorse the flotilla nonetheless dispatched consular staff or naval assets to monitor the situation and provide assistance to their nationals after the interception.
The moment the boarding began, social media accounts associated with the flotilla broadcast pleas and pre-recorded statements, anticipating that signals would be jammed.
Thunberg’s clip circulated quickly across platforms, with another version quoting her as saying: “If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters.”
Other passengers recorded appeals to family members and called on authorities to demand their release, while crews on some boats were seen throwing phones overboard to prevent devices being confiscated. By morning, Israeli agencies posted their own images showing groups of passengers seated on deck under guard, followed by bus transfers on land.
The flotilla’s scale marked the largest such attempt since a series of smaller voyages over the summer and revived comparisons with earlier efforts more than a decade ago, when a Turkish-led convoy was intercepted with deadly force in 2010.
No fatalities were reported this time. Human rights lawyers tracking the ships argued that interdictions so far from shore were unlawful and said they would file complaints in multiple jurisdictions, while naval law specialists countered that a state may enforce a blockade in international waters if a conflict meets certain thresholds and proper notifications have been given.
Activists insisted they had consulted maritime counsel and planned their approach to minimise confrontation, with medical personnel on board and manifests listing non-military cargo.
As detentions continued, union leaders in Italy announced a general strike, saying protests would escalate unless detainees were released immediately and allowed to continue their voyage.
Police in several cities erected barriers around Israeli diplomatic premises amid fears of vandalism after overnight demonstrations had blocked roads and targeted businesses accused by activists of supporting Israel’s war effort.
In Paris, student groups staged walkouts, while in Madrid campaigners marched to the foreign ministry to press for a stronger statement from the government. In Berlin, demonstrations near major railway stations drew a heavy police presence, though authorities reported no serious injuries.
For Israel’s government, the episode unfolded against the backdrop of a grinding campaign in Gaza that has drawn mounting international criticism and legal scrutiny. Officials framed the interception as routine enforcement of a necessary wartime measure, saying the naval cordon would not be loosened while hostilities persisted.
The foreign ministry reiterated that any aid aboard the flotilla could be transferred to Gaza after inspection, and that passengers would be treated according to Israeli law before removal. Security sources said forces aboard patrol craft had standing instructions to avoid lethal force unless confronted with armed resistance or imminent threats to life.
Thunberg’s allies emphasised that she joined in a personal capacity alongside campaigners unconnected to her environmental work, and that her presence was intended to highlight what they regard as a humanitarian emergency.
Her critics seized on the convoy’s limited cargo capacity to question its practical value, citing Israel’s description of earlier protest boats as “selfie yachts” carrying less than a single truckload of supplies.
Organisers responded that visibility was part of the point: small boats were used because larger ships risked being blocked far from Gaza’s coast, and because the act of sailing in numbers was meant to challenge, symbolically and physically, the idea that the blockade is unassailable.
Attention now turns to the deportation process and to the fate of the remaining craft at sea. Legal groups representing detainees said they were preparing documentation to argue that passengers were unlawfully seized and should be returned to their vessels rather than expelled, though they acknowledged that Israel has wide latitude to remove foreign nationals deemed to have violated security orders.
Consular officials were understood to be compiling lists of citizens and liaising with Israeli authorities over travel documents, accommodation and any medical needs. Family members of those on board issued statements urging speedy returns and accusing governments of not doing enough to challenge the blockade that made this confrontation inevitable.
Thunberg’s recorded message, delivered in a steady voice but with visible emotion, has already become the defining clip of the episode, repeated on news bulletins and shared across platforms.
Her assertion that the mission was peaceful and compliant with international law is now set against the Israeli insistence that the convoy sought to force a path into a war zone and undermine a security cordon that will remain in place. That dispute — over law, legitimacy and the limits of protest at sea — will move into courts and international forums in the weeks ahead.
In the immediate term, the practical outcome is clearer: a high-profile convoy has been stopped, most of its participants are in custody and will likely be returned to their home countries, and a young Swedish activist whose name has been synonymous with climate politics is again at the centre of a separate global argument over war, aid and the power of civil disobedience.
What happens next will hinge on whether another attempt is mounted in the near term, how quickly detainees are removed, and whether the last reported vessel still at sea attempts to proceed.
Organisers say they will send more boats if necessary, while Israel has left little doubt that any such attempt will be halted. Between those positions lies a contested stretch of water where law, politics and the raw realities of conflict collide, and where a pre-recorded message from a small wooden deck has pushed a maritime protest onto the world’s front pages once again.