Swedish climate and human rights activist Greta Thunberg departed Israel on a flight to France on Tuesday after being detained by Israeli forces alongside other activists aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza.
“Greta Thunberg just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden (via France),” Israel’s foreign ministry wrote in a post on X alongside two photos of the young activist aboard a plane.
Thunberg, 22, is a well-known climate activist who has long eschewed air travel, famously sailing to a climate conference in New York in 2019.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which organized the aid ship, the Madleen, said that four of the 12 activists who had been on board left Israel on Tuesday: Thunberg, two French citizens and a Spanish citizen. Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament, remains in detention, along with seven other activists from Turkey, the Netherlands, France, Brazil and Germany, it said.
“Over the last days and hours, the President of the European Parliament has been in constant contact with the Israeli authorities…to ensure the safety and security of the Member of the European Parliament, Rima Hassan, who was one of the people aboard the boat Madleen and all those accompanying her,” Delphine Colard, a spokesperson for the European Parliament, said on Monday.
Adalah, an Israel-based non-governmental legal organization that is representing some of the activists, said that those who remain are being held in Givon Prison in Ramleh, central Israel.
France’s foreign minister said that crew members who refused to agree to depart voluntarily would be deported.
“Last night our consul was able to see the six French nationals who were arrested by the Israeli authorities. Their families have been contacted. One of them agreed to a voluntary departure and is expected to return today. The other five will be deported,” Jean-Noël Barrot wrote in a post on X.
Israel’s foreign ministry had said earlier that anyone who refused to sign deportation documents and leave Israel would be brought before judicial authorities to authorize their deportation.
The detained crew of the Gaza-bound aid ship that was intercepted by Israel on Monday morning docked in the Israeli port of Ashdod Monday evening, according to Israel’s foreign ministry.
The Madleen is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an organization that has campaigned against Israel’s blockade of Gaza and tried to break the siege by boat.
The FFC said the Israeli military had “attacked” and “unlawfully boarded” the Madleen which was attempting to deliver aid to Gaza – where more than 600 days of war, and an 11-week Israeli blockade of all aid, has pushed the enclave’s 2.1 million people deeper into a hunger crisis.
Amnesty International also condemned the detention of the activists.
“The operation of intercepting and blocking the Madleen in the middle of the night and in international waters violates international law and put the safety of those on the boat at risk,” Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said in a statement.
In a statement to CNN, Israel said that it “is preventing the entry of all vessels into the Gaza Strip, in accordance with international law.”
Israel had repeatedly vowed to stop the aid boat from reaching Gaza and described the ship as a “selfie yacht” carrying “celebrities.”
Israel imposed a full humanitarian blockade of Gaza on March 2, cutting off food, medical supplies, and other aid to the more than 2 million Palestinians who live in the territory for 11 weeks.
Faced with growing international pressure, Israel began allowing a trickle of aid in late May. But humanitarian organizations say it is only a fraction of the aid that entered the enclave before the war, and have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis and the growing risk of widespread famine. A UN-backed report warned in late April that one in five people were facing starvation.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed over the past week while on their way to try and obtain aid from a new US-backed group commissioned to deliver aid to Gaza, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The group is intended to replace the UN-led system of distributing aid in Gaza. The United Nations has warned that the new distribution mechanism has become a “death trap” for desperate people seeking food in the strip.
Final_Greggit on June 10th, 2025 at 13:59 UTC »
It's hopeless, she can't save Paris.
Drewski87 on June 10th, 2025 at 10:01 UTC »
I love the people shitting on her for this lol. They expected her to fight off the IOF and lead an invasion to deliver the aid. The whole point was to come in peace with transparent intent. The IOF (yet again) showed their true colors by intercepting the vessel, detaining the crew, and sending them away without letting any of the aid get to the starving population.
I imagine the only reason anyone from that ship is even alive right now is because Greta and others have so much notoriety and were posting updates on social media constantly.
Those of you calling Greta a hypocrite or calling this a stunt are falling for Israeli PR hook, line, and sinker. Don’t be mad at Greta for trying to stick by her principles while you sit at home doing nothing.
AutocraticHilarity on June 10th, 2025 at 09:27 UTC »
Mission accomplished. They were never going to get to actually deliver aid, it was all about publicity and media attention.
Edit: in this thread there are clearly very passionate individuals, but perhaps less focused on reading comprehension.
Greta achieved what she set out to do. She isn’t dumb, so knew the likelihood of actually getting to deliver aid was essentially nil. The point was to raise awareness and attention, which she did in spades. Hence: mission accomplished.