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Israeli forces have attacked a humanitarian aid ship bound for Gaza as the vessel approached the coastal waters of the besieged Palestinian territory.

Thiago Avila, a Brazilian activist on board the Madleen ship, said in a social media post on Monday morning that they were surrounded by Israeli army ships.

He added that the regime’s forces have attacked Madleen, a humanitarian aid vessel that was attempting to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.

"Connection has been lost on the 'Madleen'. The Israeli army has boarded the vessel," the Freedom Flotilla Coalition posted on Telegram, adding that Israeli forces kidnapped the passengers.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg was among 12 international campaigners aboard the Madleen. “Game of Thrones” actor Liam Cunningham and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament of Palestinian descent, are also onboard the vessel.

Rima Hassan broadcast images of the sirens sounding on the ship.

Mahmud Abu-Odeh, a Germany-based press officer with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, told AFP that "the activists seemed to be arrested."

According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine, five Israeli speedboats have reached the Madleen ship.

Francesca Albanese said the Madeleine crew has informed Israeli forces that they are carrying humanitarian aid and that they will leave safely.

“I heard the soldiers speaking while the captain was on the phone with me,” Albanese said.

“I lost connection with the captain as he was telling me that ‘another boat is approaching’.”

The new development came after Hamas warned the Israeli regime against taking any measure to stop the Madleen ship, holding the regime fully responsible for the lives of activists aboard it.

Earlier, the Israeli minister of military affairs, Israel Katz, threatened to block the aid ship from reaching Gaza, accusing Thunberg and fellow activists of being “Hamas propagandists.”

He had instructed the regime’s forces to take action "by land, sea, and air" to prevent the ship from reaching Gaza.

 Blatant act of piracy

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned Israel's seizure of the Freedom Flotilla ship and its crew.

“We strongly condemn the cowardly and illegal Israeli attack on the Madleen’s as it approached Gaza with desperately needed humanitarian supplies,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

“This is a blatant act of international piracy and state terrorism,” he said.

“The Israeli occupation has no legal right to blockade the Gaza coast, much less to drop chemical weapons on humanitarian aid boats and abduct their passengers in international waters,” Awad added.

Awad called on the Israeli regime to immediately release the ship’s crew.

“We applaud Greta Thunberg and the other activists of the Madleen who bravely risked their safety and freedom to help the starving people of Gaza,” he said.

The Madleen, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, set sail from Sicily last week carrying urgent humanitarian supplies for Gaza, including baby formula, flour, rice, desalination kits, medical aid, and children’s prosthetics.

Israeli drones hit a vessel operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the Conscience, in international waters off the coast of Malta on May 2.

The group condemned the attack at the time, calling it a clear “violation of international law.”

UN agencies and major aid groups have warned that Gaza is at risk of famine if more aid is not brought in. They say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order, and widespread looting make it extremely difficult to deliver aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians.

Cairo, June 19: Israeli army’s direct gunfire and strikes killed at least 140 starving people including child and women across Gaza in the past 24 hours, local health officials said, as some Palestinians in the Strip said their plight was being forgotten as attention has shifted to the air war between Israel and Iran.

At least 40 of those killed over the past day died as a result of Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Wednesday, Gaza’s health ministry said. The deaths included the latest in near daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on the territory.

Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp, the Zeitoun neighborhood and Gaza City killed at least 21 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on an encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Fourteen more people were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.

Asked about the Salahuddin road incident, the Israel Defense Forces said that despite repeated warnings that the area was an active combat zone, individuals approached troops operating in the Nuseirat area in the central Gaza Strip in a manner that posed a threat to forces.

Troops fired warning shots, it said, adding that it was unaware of injuries. Regarding other strikes, the IDF said it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” while taking “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”

On Tuesday, Gaza’s health ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May.

Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 would be overlooked due to the new Israel-Iran conflict.

“People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days,” said Adel, a resident of Gaza City.

“Whoever doesn’t die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won,” he said. 

New Delhi: The United States has reiterated that while it welcomes legitimate travelers, it "cannot and will not tolerate" illegal entry or misuse of visas. 

The statement comes amid outrage over a video showing an Indian student handcuffed and pinned to the floor at Newark Liberty Airport, allegedly before being deported.

Indirectly defending the action against the student, the US Embassy in India said in a post on X:

"The United States continues to welcome legitimate travellers to our country. However, there is no right to visit the United States. We cannot and will not tolerate illegal entry, abuse of visas, or the violation of US law."

Congress Demands Modi Speak Up

Following the incident, the Indian National Congress has called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a firm stand and appeal to then-US President Donald Trump to stop the "mistreatment and atrocities" against Indian citizens in the United States.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh criticized the Modi government for what he described as repeated failures to uphold the dignity of Indians abroad.

"For the first time, a US head of state has declared a ceasefire between India and Pakistan from Washington DC. President Trump continues to claim credit for pressuring India, while Prime Minister Modi remains silent—not just on this but also on the growing number of atrocities against Indians in the US," Ramesh posted on X.

He added,

"We demand that Prime Minister Modi speak directly with President Trump and intervene to protect Indian students and citizens facing fear and mistreatment in the US."

‘Too Painful to Watch’

Congress Media and Publicity Department chairman Pawan Khera also weighed in, sharing a post by Indian-American entrepreneur Kunal Jain, who had posted the video of the student’s treatment at the airport.

Khera said:

"This is too painful, too humiliating, and too distressing to watch. As a nation, why should we tolerate such humiliation?"

He compared the current scenario to the 2013 Devyani Khobragade incident, when India had strongly protested the treatment of one of its diplomats by US authorities.

"From standing up to the US then, to now watching our citizens being treated like criminals—have we lost all global goodwill?" he asked.

In his original post, Kunal Jain described witnessing the scene firsthand:

"I saw a young Indian student being deported from Newark Airport last night—handcuffed, crying, treated like a criminal. He came chasing a dream, not to cause harm. As an NRI, I felt helpless and heartbroken. This is a human tragedy."

The Indian Consulate in New York has stated that it is in touch with local authorities regarding the incident.