Greta Thunberg and activists slam Israel ‘threat’; US blocks Gaza ceasefire resolution at UN
A coalition of activists including Greta Thunberg on board a ship headed to Gaza have reacted to Israel’s threat, as the US blocked a ceasefire resolution at the UN. Follow updates.
Activists on board a ship headed to war-torn Gaza including prominent climate campaigner Greta Thunberg have condemned what they say is Israel’s “declared intent to attack” their vessel.
The Madleen ship, launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), left Sicily on Sunday carrying humanitarian aid and is due to arrive on June 7.
Israel’s military said Tuesday it was ready to “protect” the country’s seas.
“The navy operates day and night to protect Israel’s maritime space and borders at sea,” army spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said.
Asked about the aid vessel, he said: “For this case as well, we are prepared.”
He added: “We have gained experience in recent years, and we will act accordingly.”
The Walla news site reported that Israeli navy commandos are preparing for the possibility of seizing the vessel.
In a statement on Wednesday, the activist coalition said it “strongly condemns Israel’s declared intent to attack Madleen”, calling it a “threat”.
“Madleen carries humanitarian aid and international human rights defenders in direct challenge to Israel’s illegal, decades-long blockade, and ongoing genocide” in Gaza, it said.
The coalition said that on Tuesday evening, off the coast of the Greek island of Crete, the Madleen “was approached and circled by a drone, followed, several hours later by two additional drones”.
It said it was later informed these were surveillance drones operated by the Greek coastguard, EU border agency Frontex or both.
Israel recently eased a more than two-month blockade on war-ravaged Gaza, but the aid community has urged it to allow in more food, faster.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, launched in 2010, is an international movement supporting Palestinians, combining humanitarian aid with political protest against the blockade on Gaza.
The Madleen is a small sailboat reportedly carrying fruit juices, milk, rice, tinned food and protein bars.
In early May, the Freedom Flotilla ship Conscience was damaged in international waters off Malta as it headed to Gaza, with the activists saying they suspected an Israeli drone attack.
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US BLOCKS CEASEFIRE RESOLUTION AT UN
The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, which Washington claimed undermined ongoing diplomacy to resolve the conflict.
It was the 15-member body’s first vote on the situation since November, when the United States – a key Israeli ally – also blocked a text calling for an end to fighting.
“This resolution would undermine diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire that reflects the realities on the ground and emboldens Hamas,” Washington’s United Nations envoy Dorothy Shea said ahead of the vote.
“This resolution also draws false equivalence between Israel and Hamas,” she said.
The US has come under fire from UN Security Council members.
Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN Asim Ahmad meanwhile said the failed resolution would “remain not only a moral stain on the conscience of this council, but a fateful moment of political application that will reverberate for generations.”
China’s ambassador to the UN Fu Cong said: “Today’s vote result once again exposes that the root cause of the council’s inability to quell the conflict in Gaza is the repeated obstruction by the US.”
The draft resolution had demanded “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties.”
It also called for the “immediate, dignified and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups.” Underlining a “catastrophic humanitarian situation” in the Palestinian territory, the resolution, had it passed, would have demanded the lifting of all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
US-BACKED AID ORG SUSPENDS GAZA OPS
A US and Israeli-backed group operating aid sites in Gaza shut its facilities on Wednesday, as the Israeli army warned that roads leading to distribution centres were “considered combat zones”.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s move followed a string of deadly incidents near distribution sites it operates that drew sharp condemnation from the United Nations.
Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed at least 48 people across the Gaza Strip, including 14 in a single strike on a tent sheltering displaced people, the civil defence agency said.
A day earlier, the civil defence and the International Committee of the Red Cross said 27 people were killed when Israeli troops opened fire near a GHF site in southern Gaza. The military said the incident was under investigation.
Britain called for an “immediate and independent investigation”, echoing a demand from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
UK Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer said the deaths of Palestinians as they sought food were “deeply disturbing” as he called Israel’s new measures for aid delivery “inhumane”.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said “these are not isolated incidents” and called for accountability.
Israel recently eased its blockade of Gaza, but the United Nations says the territory’s entire population remains at risk of famine.
MORE STARVING PALESTINIANS SHOT
Rescuers said the Israeli military killed at least 27 people near a US-backed aid centre in Gaza on Tuesday, with the army reporting it had fired on “suspects who advanced toward the troops”.
The UN human rights chief condemned such attacks on civilians as “a war crime” after a similar shooting in the same area on Sunday killed and wounded scores of Palestinians seeking aid, according to the civil defence agency.
The deaths in Rafah came as rescuers reported 19 people killed in other Israeli attacks in the territory, and as the Israeli army announced three soldiers had been killed in northern Gaza.
“Twenty-seven people were killed and more than 90 injured in the massacre targeting civilians who were waiting for American aid in the Al-Alam area of Rafah,” said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal, who earlier told AFP the deaths occurred “when Israeli forces opened fire with tanks and drones”.
The Al-Alam roundabout is about a kilometre from a centre run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a recently formed group that Israel has worked with to implement a new aid distribution mechanism in the territory.
The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to co-operate with the group over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
The military said a crowd was moving towards the aid centre when troops saw them “deviating from the designated access routes”.
“The troops carried out warning fire, and after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops,” it said, adding it was looking into reports of casualties.
At Nasser Hospital, the husband and children of Reem Al-Akhras, who was killed at Al-Alam, were beside themselves with grief.
“How can I let you go, mum?” her son Zain Zidan said through tears as he cradled her white-shrouded head outside the hospital.
“She went to bring us some food, and this is what happened to her.” Akhras’s husband, Mohamed Zidan, said “every day, unarmed people” were being killed.
“They carry no weapons or knives – just bags to collect aid. “This is not humanitarian aid; it’s a trap,” he said.
‘PALESTINIANS ARE RISKING THEIR LIVES FOR FOOD’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an independent investigation into the deaths of at least 31 Palestinians near a US-backed aid distribution site in Gaza, after rescuers blamed the deaths on Israeli gunfire.
“I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday,” Mr Guterres said.
“It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food.
“I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”
SIX KIDS AMONG 14 KILLED IN ISRAELI STRIKE ON GAZA HOME
Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on a home in the northern town of Jabalia on Sunday killed 14 people.
“The number of martyrs from the targeting of the Al-Bursh family home has risen to 14, including six children and three women, in addition to more than 20 missing individuals still under the rubble,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP on Monday.
‘SHOT FROM ALL SIDES’: MSF SHOCKED BY AID CENTRE ATTACK
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said that people it treated at a Gaza aid site run by a new US-backed organisation reported being “shot from all sides” by Israeli forces.
The NGO, known by its French name MSF, blamed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution system for chaos at the scene in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 31 Palestinians at the site.
Witnesses told AFP the Israeli military had opened fire.
The GHF and Israeli authorities denied any such incident took place but MSF and other medics reported treating crowds of locals with gunshot wounds at the Nasser hospital in the nearby town of Khan Younis.
“Patients told MSF they were shot from all sides by drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and Israeli soldiers on the ground,” MSF said in a statement.
MSF emergency co-ordinator Claire Manera in the statement called the GHF’s system of aid delivery “dehumanising, dangerous and severely ineffective”.
“It has resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians that could have been prevented. Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian organisations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and effectively.”
MSF communications officer Nour Alsaqa in the statement reported hospital corridors filled with patients, mostly men, with “visible gunshot wounds in their limbs”.
MSF quoted one injured man, Mansour Sami Abdi, as describing people fighting over just five pallets of aid.
“They told us to take food – then they fired from every direction,” he said.
“This isn’t aid. It’s a lie.”
The Israeli military said an initial inquiry found its troops “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site”.
A GHF spokesperson said: “These fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas,” the Islamic militant group that Israel has vowed to destroy in Gaza.
ISRAEL ARMY PUSHES AHEAD IN GAZA
Israel’s defence minister said that he had ordered the army to push ahead with its fight against Hamas “regardless of any negotiations”, after a US envoy called the group’s latest response to a Gaza truce proposal unacceptable.
“I have instructed the IDF (military) to continue forward in Gaza against all targets, regardless of any negotiations”, Israel Katz said in a statement on Sunday.
“Either Hamas releases the hostages, or it will be destroyed.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Sunday after air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem and other cities.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted,” the army said in a statement.
HAMAS DELIVERS SHOCK CEASEFIRE DEMANDS
Hamas has responded to the US ceasefire proposal with a string of new conditions — which have been slammed by White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff as “totally unacceptable”.
The terror group requested a ceasefire lasting up to seven years, a full IDF withdrawal from all territory captured since March, the cancellation of the new aid distribution model in Gaza, and a return to the previous aid mechanism, The Times of Israel reported.
Hamas’ demands effectively stalled negotiations toward a 60-day truce by demanding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu consider a permanent ceasefire after an initial release of hostages.
Mr Netanyahu echoed Mr Witkoff’s assessment that the response was “unacceptable”, accusing Hamas of clinging “to its rejectionism”.
If a permanent ceasefire is not reached within 60 days, Hamas also want the US-backed proposal to halt the Jewish State from resuming fighting, according to the outlet.
Israel earlier warned Hamas to either accept the deal and free the hostages held in Gaza “or be annihilated”.
In a statement on Sunday, Hamas said it had “submitted its response … to the mediating parties”.
“As part of this agreement, 10 living prisoners of the occupation held by the resistance will be released, in addition to the return of 18 bodies, in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners,” it added.
A source within the group’s political bureau said it had offered “a positive response to Witkoff, but with emphasis on guaranteeing a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal” from the Gaza Strip.
Mr Witkoff said Hamas’s response was “only takes us backward”, urging the group to “accept the framework proposal we put forward”.
“That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have … substantive negotiations in good faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire,” he added in a post on X.
– with AFP
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Originally published as Greta Thunberg and activists slam Israel ‘threat’; US blocks Gaza ceasefire resolution at UN