Israeli forces say aid boat activists, including Greta Thunberg, leaving Israel – Middle East crisis live

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Israel says activist Greta Thunberg is leaving country on flight to France

Greta Thunberg. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg seen after Israeli forces intercepted the aid boat she was on which was headed to Gaza.

Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s coverage of the Middle East.

Israel on Tuesday said Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was leaving the country on a flight to France, after she was detained along with other activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat and taken to a Tel Aviv airport for deportation.

“Greta Thunberg is departing Israel on a flight to France,” Israel’s foreign ministry said on its official X account, along with two photos of the activist on board a plane.

The activist group departed Italy on 1 June aboard the Madleen carrying a symbolic amount of food and supplies for Gaza, whose population is at risk of famine. Israeli forces intercepted the boat in international waters on Monday and towed it to the port of Ashdod.

“The passengers of the ‘Selfie Yacht’ arrived at Ben Gurion airport to depart from Israel and return to their home countries,” the Israeli foreign ministry said on X. “Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority.”

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the group operating the Madleen, said all 12 campaigners were “being processed and transferred into the custody of Israeli authorities”.

“They may be permitted to fly out of Tel Aviv as early as tonight,” it said on social media.

In other news …

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has said Hamas “must hand over its weapons” and called for deployment of Arab and international forces to “provide protection to the Palestinian people”, the Elysee announced Tuesday. In a letter addressed on Monday to French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who will co-chair a conference on the two-state solution, Abbas said he was “ready to invite Arab and international forces to be deployed as part of a stabilisation/protection mission with a Security Council mandate.”

Israel has attacked docks in Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeidah, targeting facilities that are key to aid shipments to the country. Late on Monday, Israel had issued warnings online for Yemenis to evacuate from Ras Isa, Hodeidah and al-Salif ports. The Israeli military said in a statement on Tuesday: “The port is used to transfer weapons and is a further example of the Houthi terrorist regime’s cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure in order to advance terrorist activities.”

Environmental charity Greenpeace said that the Madleen, the aid ship transporting Greta Thunberg and other activists, was “illegally seized in international waters by Israeli forces” and called for the “immediate release” of its crew. It also called for “unhindered delivery of aid” and an “end to the illegal occupation of Palestine”.
The BBC reports that Palestinians in Gaza say they were fired on by Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen once again as they visited the aid distribution centres run by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Monday.
Trump should summon Netanyahu to the White House and, facing cameras, tell the Israeli leader: “‘Bibi: enough is enough’”, Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister between 2006 and 2009, tells AFP. “This is it. I hope he [Trump] will do it. There is nothing that cannot happen with Trump. I don’t know if this will happen. We have to hope and we have to encourage him.”

Q&A

Why is it so difficult to report on Gaza?

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Coverage of the war in Gaza is constrained by Israeli attacks on Palestinian journalists and a bar on international reporters entering the Gaza Strip to report independently on the war.

Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza since 7 October 2023, unless they are under Israeli military escort. Reporters who join these trips have no control over where they go, and other restrictions include a bar on speaking to Palestinians in Gaza.

Palestinian journalists and media workers inside Gaza have paid a heavy price for their work reporting on the war, with over 180 killed since the conflict began.

The committee to protect journalists has determined that at least 19 of them “were directly targeted by Israeli forces in killings which CPJ classifies as murders”.

Foreign reporters based in Israel filed a legal petition seeking access to Gaza, but it was rejected by the supreme court on security grounds. Private lobbying by diplomats and public appeals by prominent journalists and media outlets have been ignored by the Israeli government.

To ensure accurate reporting from Gaza given these restrictions, the Guardian works with trusted journalists on the ground; our visual teams verify photo and videos from third parties; and we use clearly sourced data from organisations that have a track record of providing accurate information in Gaza during past conflicts, or during other conflicts or humanitarian crises.

Emma Graham-Harrison, chief Middle East correspondent

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The president of the European parliament has been in “constant contact” with Israeli authorities over the MEP Rima Hassan, who was detained after naval forces intercepted an aid ship bound for Gaza.

Hassan, a French MEP of Palestinian origin, who belongs to the radical left France Unbowed party, was on board the Madleen, which was carrying a symbolic amount of food and aid for Gaza, when it was intercepted by Israeli forces.

The European parliament president Roberta Metsola was in “constant contact” with Israeli and political group leaders “to ensure the safety and security” of Hassan and all those accompanying her, a statement from the institution said.

French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday that the French consul had been able to see six French nationals arrested by Israeli authorities last night. “One of them has agreed to leave voluntarily and should return today. The other five will be subject to forced deportation proceedings,” he wrote on X without identifying the citizens.

Leaders of three European parliamentary groups, including Hassan’s Left colleagues, the Greens and the Socialists published an open letter on Monday calling for the release of the nine people on board the Madleen. “While we recognise that humanitarian aid must be delivered through secure and co-ordinated channels, the desperation behind this civil initiative shows the failure of the international community, including of the European Union,to ensure safe, sustained and sufficient access to life-saving aid for over two million people trapped in Gaza.

Hamas has condemned an Israeli attack that killed three paramedics in Gaza as a “war crime.”

“Targeting those who aid victims represents an unprecedented level of brutality and criminality, and reveals the occupation’s efforts to stifle all means of survival and rescue in Gaza,” the statement published on Telegram said.

The group called on the international community and the United Nations to take action, urging them “to stop the occupation’s crimes, hold its fascist leaders accountable, and salvage the credibility of the international system”.

Sport in Gaza on the brink of collapse says VP of Palestinian Olympic committee

Asaad al-Majdalawi, vice president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, tells Al Jazeera that Gaza’s entire sporting infrastructure is on the brink of collapse.

“Every major component of Gaza’s sports system has been hit,” al-Majdalawi told Al Jazeera. “The Olympic Committee offices, sports federations, clubs, school and university sports programmes – even private sports facilities have been targeted. It’s a comprehensive assault.”

“This is not just loss – it’s extermination,” al-Majdalawi says. “Each athlete was a community pillar. They weren’t numbers. They were symbols of hope, unity, and perseverance. Losing them has deeply wounded the Palestinian society.”

UN commission accuses Israel of war crimes

An independent United Nations commission says Israel’s attacks in Gaza amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Israel has obliterated Gaza’s education system and destroyed over half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip — part of a widespread and relentless assault against the Palestinian people in which Israeli forces have committed war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination,” the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory says in a report.

Israel continues to deny it is guilty of war crimes and is perpetrating a genocide on Gazans.

President Mahmud Abbas gestures during a meeting with Lebanon's president at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, on May 21, 2025.

Palestinian president tells Macron to support demilitarisation of Hamas

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said that Hamas “must hand over its weapons” and called for the deployment of international forces to protect “the Palestinian people”, France announced on Tuesday.

In a letter addressed on Monday to French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who will co-chair a conference on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians this month, Abbas outlined his plan for peace in the Middle East.

“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza and must hand over its weapons and military capabilities to the Palestinian Security Forces,” wrote Abbas.

He said he was “ready to invite Arab and international forces to be deployed as part of a stabilisation/protection mission with a (UN) Security Council mandate.”

The conference at UN headquarters later this month will aim to resurrect the idea of a two-state solution - Israel currently controls large parts of the Palestinian territories.

“We are ready to conclude within a clear and binding timeline, and with international support, supervision and guarantees, a peace agreement that ends the Israeli occupation and resolves all outstanding and final status issues,” Abbas wrote.

“Hamas has to immediately release all hostages and captives,” Abbas added.

In a statement, the Elysee Palace welcomed “concrete and unprecedented commitments, demonstrating a real willingness to move towards the implementation of the two-state solution.”

Macron has said he is “determined” to recognise a Palestinian state, but also set out several conditions, including the “demilitarisation” of Hamas.

Owen Jones

Reacting to the seizure of Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg’s “symbolic” aid flotilla, my colleague Owen Jones argues that the incident exposes Israel’s genocidal intent in Gaza.

Jones writes that Israel’s blockade satisfies a UN definition of genocide, which states that a genocide has occurred when actions deliberately inflict on a group “conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

Jones points out that the aid blockade, the killing of aid workers, and the decimation of Gaza’s agricultural land have contributed to meeting the UN’s definition of genocide.

“The Madleen did not make it to Gaza’s shores. Yet its crew exposed an obscenity that has repulsed western citizens, who will one day force their governments to cease their complicity, which is why, in the end, Israel will lose…”