Politics
Greta Thunberg details experience in Israeli custody after Gaza-bound flotilla raid
Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg said she endured physical abuse, humiliation, and threats of being “gassed in a cage” while detained by Israeli forces after the interception of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla last month.
She was among 450 activists aboard the flotilla, a humanitarian mission comprising more than 40 vessels seeking to break the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip and deliver essential supplies — including food, water, and medicine.
Her interview was published by Aftonbladet, a Swedish daily tabloid newspaper, where Thunberg said that she doesn’t want headlines about herself and the torture she says she was subjected to.
Thunberg and other activists from the flotilla shared details about their five-day captivity in Israel and how they were left without help by the Swedish foreign ministry.
“This is not about me or the others from the flotilla. There are thousands of Palestinians, hundreds of whom are children, who are being held without trial right now, and many of them are most likely being tortured,” Aftonbladet quoted Thunberg.
She emphasised that the story is about international solidarity, about people coming together to do the work that governments are not doing.
“And above all, it’s about the people who live in Gaza. This shows that if Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a well-known, white person with a Swedish passport this way, just imagine what they do to Palestinians behind closed doors.”
After the Israeli military seized her boat, they were taken to the lower deck where they were made to sit in a circle without moving while the boat was taken ashore. Several witnesses interviewed by Aftonbladet describe how the weapons were pointed at their faces.
“It was extremely hot down there. We just sat there. Those who weren’t guarding us walked around the boat, tearing things apart and throwing everything around.”
Thunberg said that she was unaware of what happened to the food, medicine, diapers, and infant formula — the aid for Gaza.
After about 20 hours, they arrived in Ashdod, Israel’s largest industrial port, 40 kilometres south of Tel Aviv. A soldier pointed at Thunberg and said: “You first, come on!” she recounts.
She was not allowed to wear her T-shirt with “Free Palestine” on it and was ordered to change, she explains. She put on an orange one with the text “Decolonize” instead.
Thunberg recounted being dragged to a paved area enclosed by iron fencing — an ordeal that, according to her and several flotilla participants interviewed by Aftonbladet, continued for more than six hours.
She was separated from others and repeatedly assaulted while wrapped in a flag. She said officers tore off her frog-shaped hat, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it in apparent anger.
According to Thunberg, she was then dragged to a corner, facing the wall, where one officer mockingly said: “A special place for a special lady.”
She and other Swedish participants told Aftonbladet that anyone who lifted their head was forced down again.
In the corner where Thunberg sat, officers placed a flag so close that it brushed against her — and each time it did, they shouted at her and kicked her. Eventually, her hands were bound tightly with cable ties as several guards posed for selfies beside her.
Thunberg recounted undergoing repeated interrogations, during which officials pressured her to sign documents admitting she had entered Israel illegally — a claim she refused to acknowledge. After declining, she said her hands were once again bound with cable ties, her eyes blindfolded, and she was placed in a cramped vehicle cell for the night.
“It was freezing cold,” she recalled. “We were only wearing T-shirts.”
According to Thunberg, upon arrival at the detention facility, she was ordered to undress while being filmed and subjected to mocking remarks.
“They handled us roughly; it was all very humiliating,” she said, adding that detainees’ essential medicines — including heart and cancer treatments as well as insulin — were discarded in front of them.
Inside the prison, she described a mural covering an entire wall depicting a bombed Gaza scene with fleeing civilians and the words “The new Gaza” written beside a large Israeli flag.
At one point, around 60 people were put in a small cage outdoors, in the middle of the sun, according to several participants of the flotilla. Most of them did not have enough room to sit down.
“When people fainted, we banged on the cages and asked for a doctor. Then the guards came and said, ‘We’re going to gas you.’ It was standard for them to say that. They held up a gas cylinder and threatened to press it against us.”
At the port, the Swedish detainees were granted only a brief five-minute consultation with a lawyer before being denied further legal access. It was not until Friday that three representatives from the Swedish embassy in Tel Aviv were permitted to meet them — in an outdoor holding cage under strict supervision.
According to her, the response was that their job was to listen to them. Then it took two days before the embassy staff showed up again.
Finally, the Swedish group decided, in the presence of the embassy staff, to refuse to return to their cells until they were given water, according to several witnesses that Aftonbladet has spoken to. But then the embassy staff wanted to leave the prison, they claim.
Several participants reported that a female activist became enraged and kicked the trash can where the guards had thrown their water bottles. Bottles spilled onto the floor, and Greta and the others threw themselves on the floor and hurried to open the bottles and drink the water left behind by the guards.
“The embassy staff see this but continue walking anyway.”
On the same day the flotilla participants were freed after five days in detention, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told local media it was “very foolish” to travel to Gaza despite prior warnings.
However, Aftonbladet’s review of emails sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to relatives — compared with testimonies given by detainees to embassy officials — suggests the gravity of the situation was downplayed.
The ministry’s description of events at the port, where Greta Thunberg says she was beaten for hours, merely stated: “She reported harsh treatment and said she had been sitting on a hard surface for a long time.”
Three other flotilla members who spoke to Aftonbladet largely corroborated Thunberg’s account, each describing experiences of physical abuse and humiliation. Relatives of the detainees also expressed strong criticism of the Swedish embassy’s response.
- Tariffs will stay until US buys Greenland: Trump.
- European nations reiterate support for Denmark.
- UK PM Starmer terms US move “completely wrong”.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on European allies until the Washington is allowed to buy Greenland, escalating a row over the future of Denmark’s vast Arctic island.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that an additional 10% import tariffs would take effect on February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain — all already subject to tariffs imposed by Trump.
Those tariffs would increase to 25% on June 1 and would continue until a deal was reached for the US to purchase Greenland, Trump wrote.
Trump has repeatedly insisted he will settle for nothing less than ownership of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. Leaders of both Denmark and Greenland have insisted the island is not for sale and does not want to be part of the US.
Security, minerals
The president has repeatedly said Greenland is vital to US security because of its strategic location and large mineral deposits, and has not ruled out using force to take it. European nations this week sent military personnel to the island at Denmark’s request.
“These Countries, who are playing this very dangerous game, have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable,” Trump wrote.
Protesters in Denmark and Greenland demonstrated on Saturday against Trump’s demands and called for the territory to be left to determine its own future.
The countries named by Trump on Saturday have backed Denmark, warning that the US military seizure of a territory in NATO could collapse the military alliance that Washington leads.
“The president’s announcement comes as a surprise,” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was unusually blunt in condemning Trump’s threat, saying on X that his country would raise the issue directly with Washington.
“Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of Nato allies is completely wrong,” Starmer said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said in separate but identical posts on X that the European Union stood in “full solidarity” with Denmark and Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” they said.
Officials from Norway, Sweden, France and Germany reiterated support for Denmark on Saturday and said tariffs should not be part of Greenland discussions.
Cyprus, which currently holds the EU presidency, said it has called for an emergency meeting of ambassadors from the union’s 27 countries on Sunday.
Trade deals under threat?
Saturday’s threat could derail tentative deals Trump struck last year with the European Union and Great Britain. The deals included baseline levies of 15% on imports from Europe and 10% on most British goods.
“The biggest danger, it seems to me, is his decision to treat some EU countries differently from others,” said William Reinsch, a trade expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “I’m not surprised [….] It may well convince the European Parliament that it is pointless to approve the trade agreement with the US, since Trump is already bypassing it.”
Trump floated the general idea of tariffs over Greenland on Friday, without citing a legal basis for doing so. Tariffs have become his weapon of choice in seeking to compel American adversaries and allies alike to meet his demands.
He said this week he would put 25% tariffs on any country trading with Iran as that country suppressed anti-government protests, though there has been no official documentation from the White House of the policy on its website, nor information about the legal authority Trump would use.
The US Supreme Court has heard arguments on the legality of Trump’s sweeping tariffs, and any decision by the top US judicial body would have major implications on the global economy and US presidential powers.
The encroaching presence of China and Russia makes Greenland vital to US security interests, Trump has said. Danish and other European officials have pointed out that Greenland is already covered by NATO’s collective security pact.
A US military base, Pituffik Space Base, is already in Greenland, with around 200 personnel, and a 1951 agreement allows the US to deploy as many forces as it wants in the Danish territory.
That has led many European officials to conclude that Trump is motivated more by a desire to expand US territory than by security concerns.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X in response to Trump’s threat.
Some US senators also pushed back. “Continuing down this path is bad for America, bad for American businesses and bad for America’s allies,” Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis, bipartisan co-chairs of the Senate Nato Observer Group, said in a statement.
Europeans should not react hastily to Trump’s tariff threat, said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING Research.
“Just ignore it and wait and see,” Brzeski told Reuters. “Europe has shown that it will not accept everything, and so the tariffs are actually already a step forward compared to the threatened military invasion.”
- Eight crew members and three passengers were onboard.
- Plane was chartered for fisheries surveillance operations.
- Debris found around Mount Bulusaraung amid heavy fog.
Indonesian authorities said on Sunday they had located the wreckage of a fisheries surveillance plane that went missing in South Sulawesi province near a fog-covered mountain, but were still searching for the 11 people on board.
The ATR 42-500 turboprop owned by aviation group Indonesia Air Transport lost contact with air traffic control on Saturday at about 1:30pm local time (0530 GMT) around the Maros region in South Sulawesi.
There were eight crew members and three passengers on board the plane, which was chartered by Indonesia’s Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry to conduct air surveillance on fisheries. The passengers were ministry staff members.
The head of South Sulawesi’s rescue agency, Muhammad Arif Anwar, said on local television that after finding the wreckage, the rescuers would deploy 1,200 personnel to search for the missing passengers and crew.
“Our priority is to search for the victims, and we hope that there are some that we can evacuate safely,” he said.
The aircraft had been heading to Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, after departing from Yogyakarta province, before contact was lost.
On Sunday morning, local rescuers found the wreckage in different locations around Mount Bulusaraung in the Maros region, said Andi Sultan, an official at South Sulawesi’s rescue agency. The mountain is roughly 1,500 km (930 miles) northeast of the sprawling island nation’s capital, Jakarta.
“Our helicopter crews have seen the debris of the plane’s window at 7:46am,” Sultan told reporters.
“And around 7:49am, we discovered large parts of the aircraft, suspected to be the fuselage of the plane,” he said, adding the tail of the plane was also seen at the bottom of the mountain slope.
Rescuers have been deployed to the locations where the wreckage was discovered, Sultan said, adding the search was hampered by thick fog and mountainous terrain.
In video footage shared by the rescue agency, a window of the plane was found scattered on the mountain with thick fog and strong wind around it.
Sultan said Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee would lead an investigation into the crash. The cause remains unclear, and experts say most accidents are caused by a combination of factors.
The ATR 42‑500, manufactured by Franco-Italian planemaker ATR, is a regional turboprop aircraft capable of carrying between 42 and 50 passengers.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said on X that the plane was flying over the ocean at a low altitude so its tracking coverage was limited, and the last signal was received at 0420 GMT about 20 km northeast of Makassar airport.
- Cairo “studying” request for Sisi to join board, says FM.
- Canadian PM intends to accept Trump’s invitation: aide.
- Argentine president says it will be an ‘honour’ to join initiative.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” for postwar Gaza began to take shape Saturday, with the leaders of Egypt, Turkey, Argentina and Canada asked to join.
The announcements from those leaders came after the US president named his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former British prime minister Tony Blair, and senior negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to the panel.
Trump had already declared himself the chair of the body, as he promotes a controversial vision of economic development in the Palestinian territory, which lies in rubble after two-plus years of relentless Israeli bombardment.
The moves came after a Palestinian committee of technocrats meant to govern Gaza held its first meeting in Cairo which was attended by Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who has partnered with Witkoff for months on the issue.
In Canada, a senior aide to Prime Minister Mark Carney said he intended to accept Trump’s invitation, while in Turkey, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had been asked to become a “founding member” of the board.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said Cairo was “studying” a request for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to join.
Sharing an image of the invitation letter, Argentine President Javier Milei wrote on X that it would be “an honour” to participate in the initiative.
In a statement sent to AFP, Blair said: “I thank President Trump for his leadership in establishing the Board of Peace and am honoured to be appointed to its Executive Board.”
Blair is a controversial figure in the Middle East because of his role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Trump himself said last year that he wanted to make sure Blair was an “acceptable choice to everybody.”
Blair spent years focused on the Israeli-Palestinian issue as representative of the “Middle East Quartet” – the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia – after leaving Downing Street in 2007.
The White House said the Board of Peace will take on issues such as “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding and capital mobilisation.”
The other members of the board so far are World Bank President Ajay Banga, an Indian-born American businessman; billionaire US financier Marc Rowan; and Robert Gabriel, a loyal Trump aide who serves on the US National Security Council.
Trump has created a second “Gaza executive board” that appears designed to have a more advisory role.
It was not immediately clear which world leaders were asked to be on each board.
The White House, which said Friday that additional members would be named to both entities, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Israel strikes
Washington has said the Gaza plan had gone on to a second phase – from implementing the ceasefire to disarming Hamas, whose October 2023 attack on Israel prompted the massive Israeli offensive.
On Friday, Trump named US Major General Jasper Jeffers to head the International Stabilization Force, which will be tasked with providing security in Gaza and training a new police force to succeed Hamas.
Jeffers, from special operations in US Central Command, in late 2024 was put in charge of monitoring a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, which has continued periodic strikes aimed at Hezbollah.
Gaza native and former Palestinian Authority deputy minister Ali Shaath was earlier tapped to head the governing committee.
Trump, a real estate developer, has previously mused about turning devastated Gaza into a Riviera-style area of resorts, although he has backed away from calls to forcibly displace the population.
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