Activists sailing on the Madleen to the Gaza Strip say the tracking system shows the ship in Jordan and are alleging that Israel is preparing to attack it.
Israel National News
Thiago Ávila, a Brazilian activist on the Madleen ‘flotilla’ which is sailing to the Gaza Strip, reported on Sunday that the ship’s navigation and communications have been disrupted, which he believes is part of the Israeli preparation to intercept the vessel.
The activist said in a video that he has ‘received some very weird news that according to our tracker, we are no longer 162 nautical miles from Gaza, which is where we are, but according to it, we are in the Jordan airport. We know what that means when they start jamming our communications, when they start messing with our devices, it means that they are preparing for an interception or an attack.’
He added: ‘We all heard the Israeli media saying that they confirmed that Unit S (Shayetet) 13 (Israel’s naval commando unit) of IOF (Israel Occupation Forces) special forces are preparing to commit a warcrime, and we need to stop that, we can still stop that. I’m convinced that if we mobilize enough, if we pressure the nation states enough, we can make such pressure in the Zionist entity that they can not afford to attack us, to intercept us.’
He concluded by calling on supporters to share the video: ‘We still have a chance to save this humanitarian aid, to preserve this boat, this mission, and ourselves, and we count on you right now.
The flotilla is expected to arrive at the shores of the Gaza Strip on Monday, led by human rights activists, including climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Israel Katz directed the IDF to prevent the vessel from reaching Gaza and to employ any operational means necessary to do so. The aim is to prevent a breach of the blockade, which Israel says is intended to stop weapons from reaching Hamas.
‘Israel will not allow anyone to violate the naval blockade on Gaza, which is primarily aimed at preventing the transfer of weapons to Hamas — a murderous terrorist organization that is holding our hostages and committing war crimes,’ Katz stated.
He added, ‘I have instructed the IDF to ensure that the ‘Madleen’ flotilla does not reach Gaza. To Greta the antisemite and her Hamas propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: turn around — you will not reach Gaza. Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or assist terrorist organizations — by sea, air, or land.’
Israel’s track record of sinking unarmed ships is quite poor. They spent 2 hours attacking the USS Liberty with fighter jets and torpedo boats, using 50 cal machine guns, rockets, bombs and torpedoes. Although they were able to murder 34 American sailors, they failed miserably in their goal of sinking the Liberty, and blaming Egypt for the attack.