The Madleen, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, lost its Garmin tracking signal at noon on Sunday during its voyage to Gaza.
Its last registered position was erroneously marked at an airport in Jordan, despite being about 162 nautical miles from Gaza, parallel to the shores of Kafr El-Sheikh governorate in northern Egypt.
The Madleen set sail from Catania, Sicily, on June 1 on a 2,000-km journey across the Mediterranean aimed at breaking the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Established in 2010, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition is a global civil society initiative launched to challenge the blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Since then, 36 ships have sailed in this effort.
The International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG) posted on X that Israel appeared to be jamming the ship’s location and signals. “This is serious… We’ll keep you posted,” the committee said.
They later shared a new tracking link, urging supporters to distribute it widely online to keep the world’s eyes on the Madleen.
In a video posted on Facebook, Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, on board the ship, said: “We just received some very weird news. According to our tracker, we are no longer 162 nautical miles from Gaza, which is where we are. According to him, we are on Jordan airport.”
Ávila added that the jamming suggested a looming attack. “We know what that means. When start jamming our communications, when they start messing with our devices, it means they are preparing for an interception or an attack,” he said, citing Israeli media reports that the Israeli special forces unit S13 was preparing “to commit a war crime.”
In retaliation, Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz ordered the military to block the aid boat from reaching Gaza.
“I have instructed the military to prevent the Madleen flotilla from reaching Gaza,” Katz said in a statement. “To Greta the antisemite and her companions, Hamas propaganda mouthpieces, I say clearly: turn back because you will not reach Gaza,” Katz added.
To which Ávila responded, “It is important that we tell everyone that considering the law of the seas, we are in international waters, and we are going to Palestinians territorial waters, none of those are under the jurisdiction not he Zionist entity.”
“We do not fear you,” he added.
Israel has a history of intercepting Freedom Flotilla ships. In 2010, Israeli forces attacked the Mavi Marmara, resulting in the deaths of 10 Turkish citizens and the detention of activists.
More recently, in May, Israel used drones to strike another Freedom Flotilla vessel, Concisence, which was sailing near Malta en route to Gaza.
In recent nights, drones flew over the Madleen, raising concerns among the activists. However, it later emerged that the drones were apparently conducting surveillance.
The vessel is carrying what activists described as “small but symbolic quantities” of humanitarian supplies. The ship’s name honors Madleen Kulab, a Palestinian fisherwoman who became the first and youngest woman in Gaza to make a living from fishing.
The ship, expected to arrive in Gaza on Monday, is carrying 12 international activists from various countries, including Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg, French Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan, Al Jazeera journalist Omar Fayyad, French journalist Yanis Mhamdi, and French activist Pascal Maurieras, who previously joined other Freedom Flotilla voyages.
Other passengers include Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, French doctor Baptiste André, German activist Yasemin Acar, French climate activist Reva Viard, Spanish Sea Shepherd member Sergio Toribio, and Dutch marine engineering student Marco van Rennes.
