Alarm warning of possible interception had sounded earlier. Madleen has 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg
A vessel that was approaching Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s Gaza-bound charity ship the Madleen has left, the coalition said early on Monday, after an alarm was sounded on the ship warning of a possible interception.
Hours earlier, the Israeli Defence Minister Israeli Katz said he told the military to stop the boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg and a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby milk formula, to Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade.
The coalition had posted on its Telegram account a voice memo of Thiago Avila, one of the activists on board, saying “we have been surrounded by many lights all at once; they were circling our boat but in the end they kept going their own way”.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the British-flagged Madleen boat is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards Gaza, which is besieged by Israel.
