Written by Lisa Murimi
Hope flickered across the Mediterranean last week as the yacht Madleen set sail from Italy, bearing rice, baby formula, and an unshakable message: Gaza is starving, and the world must not look away.
But that message was cut short in the dark hours of Monday morning, as Israeli naval forces boarded the small vessel in international waters.
Aboard were 12 international activists, including climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and French MEP Rima Hassan, determined to challenge the years-long blockade that has strangled life inside the Gaza Strip.
Their destination was Gaza. Their mission was symbolic. But their resolve was real.
Today, they sit in Ben Gurion Airport, awaiting deportation—branded provocateurs, dismissed as posing with “Instagram selfies” by Israeli officials.
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.”
The aid they carried, less than a truckload, has been ridiculed. But to a starving infant or grieving mother, one packet of baby formula could mean survival.
This is not the first time hope has sailed toward Gaza and been met with force. Memories of the Mavi Marmara still echo—a flotilla, too, intercepted with bloodshed.
Yet again, the sea has become a battleground for conscience.
Greta and the others never claimed to end a war. They came bearing food and solidarity, not arms. And for that, they are being expelled, not welcomed.
“Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority,” the Israeli foreign ministry said on X.
As Gaza starves and the world debates, one can only ask: when will humanity outweigh politics?
And what becomes of aid when compassion is treated as a threat?
