Greta Thunberg boards Gaza-bound activist vessel aimed at 'breaking Israel's siege'
2 June 2025, 09:16 | Updated: 2 June 2025, 09:39
Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg has set sail for Gaza with fellow activists on a vessel aimed at “breaking Israel’s siege” and raising “international awareness” about the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
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The climate campaigner is on board the sailing boat Madleen, operated by the activist group Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
It departed from the port of Catania in Sicily, Italy, on Sunday.
It is attempting to reach the Gaza Strip to deliver some aid and raise “international awareness” of the ongoing humanitarian crisis, the activists said at a press conference on Sunday.
“We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying,” Thunberg said in an emotional speech before the vessel set sail.
“Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. And, no matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the livestreamed genocide,” she added.
Ms Thunberg will be joined by Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham as well as French Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan on the activist vessel.
The journey is expected to take up to seven days without stops.
Ms Thunberg achieved global fame after the climate activist organised mass protests in her home country - Sweden, from a young age.
She was supposed to board a previous Freedom Flotilla ship last month.
It comes after fears were raised over a “starvation crisis” in Gaza following an 11-week blockade on aid deliveries, including food, water and medical supplies.
Israel has since lifted the blockade to "allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip".
But aid still appears to be scarce, with reports of four incidents of aid facilities being looted in the last three days as desperate Palestinians scramble for supplies.
Over the weekend, an estimated 77 trucks of aid were blocked and emptied by hungry Palestinians as they entered into Gaza, the World Food Programme (WFP) said.
The trucks, which were said to mostly contain flour, were stopped and unloaded before reaching the final destination.
A witness in the southern city of Khan Younis told The Associated Press that thousands of desperate civilians made a makeshift road block to stop the vehicles.
Most people carried bags of flour on their backs or heads. The witness said at one point a forklift was used to offload pallets from the stranded trucks.
The news comes as Hamas agrees to release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in its response to the US's Gaza ceasefire proposals.
The UN said earlier this month that Israeli authorities have forced them to use unsecure routes within areas controlled by the Israeli military in the eastern areas of Rafah and Khan Younis, where armed gangs are active.
An internal document, shared with aid groups about security incidents, said there were four incidents of facilities being looted in the last three days - not including today's incident, AP reported.
"We need to flood communities with food for the next few days to calm anxieties and rebuild the trust with communities that more food is coming," the WFP said.
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