Foreign News

Gaza-bound activist boat with Greta Thunberg on board docks in Israel

Published

8 months ago

2025/06/10

Priyan

Israel's foreign ministry shared a picture of Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, after Israeli forces intercepted the aid boat she was on [BBC]

A yacht carrying 12 activists that was trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza has been towed to the Israeli port city of Ashdod, after it was seized by Israeli forces.

Israel’s foreign ministry said the boat had docked and that those aboard the vessel, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, were “undergoing medical examinations to ensure they are in good health”.

Organisers said the Madleen was aiming to bring a “symbolic” amount of aid to Gaza in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade. They said it was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters in the early hours of Monday.

Israel dismissed it as a “selfie yacht”, saying it would deport the activists to their home countries.

The aid on board the Madleen includes rice and baby formula, organisers the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said.

Citizens of Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Turkey are onboard the vessel – among them Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament, and Omar Faiad, a French journalist with Al Jazeera.

The boat set sail from Italy on 1 June to raise awareness of starvation conditions in Gaza.

Israel says its blockade on Gaza is necessary to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas fighters there.

Video shared by the FFC showed the activists sitting down in life jackets with their hands raised as Israeli forces boarded the boat. Those on board could be seen throwing mobile phones overboard.

Israel’s foreign ministry shared footage of soldiers handing out sandwiches and water bottles to the activists after it was intercepted.

After reporting that the yacht had been boarded, the FFC posted short, pre-recorded videos of some of the activists, including Thunberg.

In the footage, they say “if you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped” by the Israeli military or forces supporting Israel.

On Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that Israel would act against any attempt to breach the blockade.

He wrote in a post on X: “I have instructed the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to act to prevent the ‘Madeleine’ [sic] hate flotilla from reaching the shores of Gaza – and to take whatever measures are necessary to that end.”

The FFC has argued that the sea blockade is illegal, characterising Katz’s statement as an example of Israel threatening the unlawful use of force against civilians and “attempting to justify that violence with smears”.

“We will not be intimidated. The world is watching,” FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday.

“The Madleen is a civilian vessel, unarmed and sailing in international waters, carrying humanitarian aid and human rights defenders from across the globe… Israel has no right to obstruct our effort to reach Gaza.”

A map showing the journey of the Madleen yacht. It left the Italian city of Catania on 1 June and was intercepted by Israeli forces on 9 June, near the Ashdod port.

In 2010 Israelicommandos killed 10 Turkish activists when they boarded the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was leading an aid flotilla towards Gaza.

Israel recently began to allow limited aid into Gaza after a three-month land blockade, prioritising distribution through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by Israel and the US but widely condemned by humanitarian groups.

The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, said last week Palestinians were being presented with the “grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available”.

In a post on X early on Monday, the Israeli foreign ministry said: “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, and in addition, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed close to 11 million meals directly to civilians in Gaza.

“There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip – they do not involve Instagram selfies.”

It is 20 months since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,880 people have been killed in Gaza since, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

[BBC]

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Foreign News

Powerful cyclone kills at least 31 as it tears through Madagascar port

Published

4 hours ago

2026/02/12

Priyan

Trees were uprooted and some districts left without power [BBC]

At least 31 people have died after a powerful cyclone struck Madagascar, says the disaster authority in the Indian Ocean island.

Cyclone Gezani made landfall on Tuesday, hitting the island’s main port, Toamasina. Madagascar’s disaster management office said there was “total chaos” – reporting that houses collapsed in the impact zone, where the bodies were found.

Neighbourhoods were plunged into darkness as power lines snapped, while trees were uprooted and roofs ripped off.

“What happened is a disaster, nearly 75% of the city of Toamasina was destroyed,” the country’s military leader Colonel Michael Randrianirina, who seized power in October, told the AFP news agency.

“The current situation exceeds Madagascar’s capabilities alone,” he added.

The cyclone’s landfall is likely to have been one of the most intense recorded around the city in the satellite era, according to the CMRS cyclone forecaster on France’s Reunion island, AFP reports.

The National Office for Risk and Disaster Management said many were killed when houses collapsed. Cyclone Gezani hit Toamasina – the country’s second-largest city – with winds reaching 250 km/hour (155 mph).

“It’s total chaos, 90% of house roofs have been blown off, entirely or in part,” the head of disaster management at the Action Against Hunger aid agency, Rija Randrianarisoa, told AFP.

Madagascar’s disaster management office has evacuated dozens of injured people and hundreds of residents from a district around Toamasina, home to 400,000 people.

Residents in and around Toamasina described scenes of chaos as the cyclone made landfall. “I have never experienced winds this violent… The doors and windows are made of metal, but they are being violently shaken,” Harimanga Ranaivo told the Reuters news agency.

Gezani is the second cyclone to hit Madagascar this year. It comes 10 days after tropical cyclone Fytia killed 14 and displaced over 31,000 people, according to the UN’s humanitarian office.

Ahead of the cyclone’s arrival, officials shuttered schools and rushed to prepare emergency shelters.

Madagascar’s meteorological service said on Wednesday morning that Gezani had weakened to a moderate tropical storm and had moved westward inland, about 100km (60 miles) north of the capital, Antananarivo.

“Gezani will cross the central highlands from east to west today, before moving out to sea into the Mozambique Channel this evening or tonight,” the service said.

Cyclone season in the Indian Ocean around Madagascar normally lasts from November to April and sees around a dozen storms each year, AFP reports.

More about Madagascar from the BBC:

[BBC]

Foreign News

Bangladesh election 2026: Polls to open amid heavy security

Published

5 hours ago

2026/02/12

Priyan

Voters queue up at a polling station at the Sangeet Government Music College in Dhaka, February 12, 2026 [Aljazeera]

Nearly 127 million eligible voters are heading to the polls in Bangladesh, in a key test of the country’s return to democracy after a student-led uprising toppled longtime leader Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.

The vote is a direct contest between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a Jamaat-e-Islami led coalition of 11 parties, which includes the National Citizens Party (NCP), formed by youth ‌activists instrumental in ousting Hasina.

Corruption, inflation, employment and economic development are the main issues deciding the election in the world’s eighth most populous nation.

Besides the parliamentary election, the country is holding a referendum on the National Charter 2025 – a document drafted by the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, setting the foundation for future governance.

[Aljazeera]

Foreign News

Pilot praised after crash-landing faulty Somali passenger plane on seashore

Published

1 day ago

2026/02/11

Priyan

The plane was on its way to Puntland before the pilot requested a return to Mogadishu [BBC]

An airline in Somalia has praised one of its pilots after he crash-landed his passenger plane, which had suffered a technical fault, on the shoreline next to the capital’s international airport with all 55 on board surviving.

Starsky Aviation said the pilot’s quick thinking was crucial in saving the 50 passengers and five crew.

The crew of the aircraft, a Fokker 50, reported a problem shortly after take off from Mogadishu on Tuesday morning and requested that the plane return, Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said.

It then touched down but failed to stop on the runway, overshooting the tarmac before coming to rest in shallow water, the CAA’s director Ahmed Macalin Hassan said.

It is not clear yet exactly what the issue was.

Footage posted on X appeared to show passengers leaving the aircraft and walking away from the wreckage on the shore of the Indian Ocean. No serious injuries have been reported.

The African Union’s mission in Somalia said UN and AU troops were “swiftly deployed” to help with rescue efforts. Somalia’s transport minister was also at the scene, its post on X added.

“We are relieved to confirm that all passengers and crew are safe. Investigations are under way to establish what caused the technical issue that led to the emergency landing,” Starsky spokesman Hassan Mohamed Aden said.

“The pilot’s swift and calm decision-making played a decisive role in ensuring the safety of everyone on board, and we commend him for how he handled the situation,” he added.

[BBC]