What Greta Thunberg is really like, according to journalist Yusuf Omar

A journalist who spent weeks with Greta Thunberg has revealed what surprised him most about the 22-year-old Swedish activist.

A journalist who spent weeks with Greta Thunberg has revealed what surprised him the most about the world’s most famous activist.

Yusuf Omar, a former CNN reporter who co-founded Seen TV, was on the same boat as Thunberg for the majority of the recent Global Sumud Flotilla mission to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The flotilla left from Spain at the start of September and was intercepted by Israeli forces about 110km off the coast of Gaza in international waters on October 1.

More than 400 activists on board were detained and held in an Israeli prison before being released and flown out of the country.

Yusuf Omar with Greta Thunberg

Greta on one of the flotilla boats. Picture: Lluis Gene / AFP

Speaking to news.com.au’s From the Newsroom podcast, Mr Omar described Thunberg as “ the most inspirational woman I’ve ever met”.

“(She) is incredibly smart, incredibly wise, incredibly articulate. Everything that comes out of her mouth, you want to write it down,” he said.

When asked what surprised him most about Thunberg, Mr Omar said that at first he had trouble understanding some of the ‘meme language’ the Swedish activist uses.

“She’s a funny mix of incredibly mature and articulate and a great leader, but at the same time, she’s still just 22 years old.

“She would use language like ‘slay’,” he laughed. “We were like, ‘we’re arriving in the Tunisian ports in the next five hours and she’d be like, ‘slay’.”

Alleged drone attack

The flotilla knew from the outset that it was unlikely Israel would allow them to breach the maritime blockade it established around Gaza back in 2007.

Previous flotilla’s had tried and failed, including one back in June which Thunberg was also a part of.

But Mr Omar said he and the other participants were shocked when Israel allegedly gave the green light for the flotilla to be targeted while moored off the coast of Tunis, just a week and a half into the journey.

“We took turns to look after the boats … because there’s a chance that they could be sabotaged,” he explained to news.com.au.

“I went out to do a night shift with about five other people and I went to bed on the top deck at 9pm and at 11pm I heard a massive explosion.

“There was fire all around, the vessel had been hit by a drone,” he said.

Tunisian authorities initially denied there was evidence of a drone strike, but that was contradicted by a CBS news report from October 3.

CBS claimed it had spoken to two American intelligence officials who told them that Benjamin Netanyahu directly approved the operation, with Israeli forces launching drones from a submarine and dropping incendiary devices onto the boats.

“ I’d never been so scared in my whole life,” Mr Omar said. “I was screaming and you know when you’re in a dream and you scream as loud as you can but it feels like nothing’s coming out, that’s the only way I can describe it.”

Mr Omar said the alleged attack was a “scare tactic”, but told news.com.au it had the opposite effect.

“I think that all of the activists after that drone strike were more determined,” he said.

The Israeli interception

Mr Omar was not on the flotilla boats when they were intercepted by Israeli forces at the start of October.

His journey ended mid-September over concerns his viral coverage of the flotilla on social media was detracting from the actual story, Gaza.

He has however spoken to several of his friends who were on board at the time and were detained by Israel.

You can hear what Mr Omar had to say about their “horrible” experience in the video at the top of this article, as well as his opinion on if Israel and Palestine will be able to agree on a lasting peace in the region.