Shayetet 13, the IDF’s elite navy seals unit, intercepted the Gaza Freedom Flotilla early on Monday morning at around 3 a.m., detaining the 12 activists aboard after they ignored repeated warnings to turn back from trying to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s position, since Hamas carried out a coup against the Palestinian Authority and took over Gaza in 2007, has been that a naval blockade of Gaza is legal since Hamas is a terror group in a state of war with Israel.
Jerusalem also argues that it is necessary to block Iran from smuggling in high-quality missiles, such as those the Yemeni Houthis and other Iranian proxies possess.
The IDF boarded the Madleen and navigated the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel crew and the boat to the Port of Ashdod.
The activists, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, French-Palestinian European Parliament Member Rima Hassan, and Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham, were trying to raise awareness of their opposition to Israel’s invasion of Gaza, its blocking of certain international groups from directly distributing food aid in Gaza, and the naval blockade in general.
All the passengers of the ‘selfie yacht’ are safe and unharmed. They were provided with sandwiches and water. The show is over. pic.twitter.com/tLZZYcspJO— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) June 9, 2025
Boarding the vessel https://t.co/QCbanQ9dgZ pic.twitter.com/CEVHzm2F4m— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) June 9, 2025
Since 2010, there have been several attempts by global critics of Israel to break Israel’s naval blockade. However, in recent years, many of those attempts were stopped by drones, insurance lawsuits, and other tactics.
In 2010, 10 activists were killed by the IDF after they attacked Israeli Navy commandos boarding the ship with crowbars and other makeshift weapons, badly injuring at least one.
The Israeli Navy is currently communicating with the “selfie yacht”. Using an international civilian communication system, the Israeli Navy has instructed the “selfie yacht” to change its course due to its approach toward a restricted area. pic.twitter.com/KnSqWrsXU2— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) June 8, 2025
Since then, the IDF has clarified procedures to avoid altercations and has boarded and safely taken control of other ships that tried to break the blockade.
There have also been incidents, such as the Karine A cargo ship in 2002 and the Victoria cargo ship in 2011, where the navy has intercepted and commandeered weapons-smuggling vessels without either side being badly injured.
According to a Foreign Ministry post on X/Twitter, “All the passengers of the ‘selfie yacht’ are safe and unharmed. They were provided with sandwiches and water. The show is over.”
Sources told The Jerusalem Post that the 12 activists would be sent back to their home countries as quickly as possible in order to wrap up the episode.
At press time, multiple home countries of the activists were demanding consular access to their citizens while in Israeli custody.
Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered that the activists first view footage from Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel.
While the media has been covering the flotilla’s sailing progress toward Israel for some time, at 1:17 a.m. on Monday, the activists started to signal that the Israeli Navy was bearing down on them. The flotilla’s Telegram account reported that alarms sounded on the ship, and life jackets were being prepared.
One of the flotilla participants Yasmine Najer uploaded a video to her Instagram account and explained why the alarm in the flotilla was activated: “We are very close to Gaza. The reason we activated the alarm is that four ships surrounded us and two approached to a distance of about 200 meters – this has not happened before. So that is why we sounded the alarm.”
Around that time, the Israeli Navy used an international civilian communication system to communicate with the Madleen, ordering it to change its course due to its approach toward a restricted area.
“If you wish to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, you are able to do so through the Port of Ashdod via the established channels and distribution zones,” said an Israeli sailor on a video distributed by the Foreign Ministry.
The ‘selfie yacht’ on its way to Israeli shores
The ministry later announced that the flotilla, referring to it as the “selfie yacht,” was making its way to Israeli shores.
“While Greta and others attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity – and which included less than a single truckload of aid – more than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks,” the ministry said in an official statement. “There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip – they do not involve Instagram selfies.”
The ministry then added that the aid on the flotilla, which it described as “tiny,” would be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels.
In recent days, the Madleen’s official tracker had shown the ship edging closer to the Gaza coastline, and Shayetet 13 had already begun training to board the ship, which the Post had learned could happen “soon.” However, IDF officials had been circumspect about sharing exact details.
Even after the operation, unusually, the Foreign Ministry, and not the IDF, took the lead in publicizing details of the event.
The vessel left a week ago from the city of Catania in Sicily. The IDF had stated that it would intercept the vessel before it reached Gaza. The activists on board reported that they would attempt to livestream the IDF’s takeover of the vessel.
Amichai Stein and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
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