Climate activist Greta Thunberg stands near a Palestinian flag after boarding the Madleen boat and before setting sail for Gaza along with activists of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, departing from the Sicilian port of Catania, Italy, June 1, 2025
ISRAEL’S far-right defence minister vowed today to prevent an aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists from reaching the Gaza Strip.
The remarks by Israel Katz comes as the Israelis continue to carry out their attacks on Palestinians desperately seeking aid in Gaza.
Mr Katz said today that Israel wouldn’t allow anyone to break its naval blockade of the Palestinian territory, which he said was aimed at preventing Hamas from importing arms.
“To the anti-semitic Greta and her fellow Hamas propagandists — I will say this clearly: You should turn back, because you will not make it to Gaza,” he said in a statement.
Ms Thunberg, a climate campaigner, is among 12 activists aboard the Madleen, which is operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. The vessel departed Sicily last Sunday on a mission that aims to break the sea blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave.
The vessel was expected to reach Gaza’s territorial waters this evening.
After a three-month total blockade aimed at pressuring Hamas, Israel started allowing some basic aid into Gaza last month, but humanitarian workers have warned of famine unless the blockade [is lifted] and the war end[s].
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
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UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini on April 30, 2024 [FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images]
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), on Saturday condemned Israel’s ongoing ban on international journalists entering Gaza, calling it an unprecedented act in modern conflict, Anadolu reports.
“This is unprecedented in any other conflict in modern history,” Lazzarini said in a statement.
“It is a ban on the truth. It is a ban on reporting the facts. It is the perfect recipe to fuel misinformation, deepening polarization and dehumanization.”
He stressed the importance of allowing independent reporting and supporting local journalists: “International journalists must independently report from Gaza and support their Palestinian colleagues who continue to do a heroic job at a heavy price.”
“Nearly 200 of them were reported killed since the war began,” said Lazzarini, stressing that “the ban on international media must be lifted.”
Separately, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on Saturday reiterated its call for cooperation from the Israeli government over allegations made against the agency, stating that no credible evidence has been provided despite repeated requests.
“UNRWA has repeatedly requested cooperation and evidence from Israel regarding the serious allegations made against the Agency,” the agency said in an official statement.
“After 20 months, UNRWA has not received any response, nor has the Government of Israel shared any sufficient evidence.”
The agency emphasized its continued commitment to its humanitarian mandate, stating: “UNRWA remains committed to its mandate and is ready to deliver humanitarian assistance at scale in Gaza, together with other UN agencies.”
Israel, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a genocidal offensive in Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 54,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave’s more than 2 million inhabitants.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Relatives and loved ones of Palestinians, who lost their lives after Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd gathered at an aid distribution point in the Al-Alam area of Rafah, mourn for their deceased ones at Nasser Medical Complex during their funeral procedures in Khan Yunis, Gaza on June 3, 2025. [Abdallah F.s. Alattar – Anadolu Agency]
A CNN investigation found that Israeli troops opened fire on crowds of Palestinians near an aid distribution site in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, leaving dozens of casualties, Anadolu reports.
Citing more than a dozen witnesses, CNN said Israeli troops shot at crowds in volleys of gunfire that occurred sporadically.
Dozens were shot dead in Gaza after Israeli forces opened fire on multiple occasions on Palestinians seeking aid brought in by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a group backed by the US and Israel that has been operating in the enclave since May 27.
According to the report, video evidence geolocated by CNN, along with expert analysis of recovered bullets and audio of sustained gunfire, indicates that the rounds were likely fired from Israeli military machine guns mounted on tanks stationed near the aid site.
“No one move, stay in your place!” a man is heard shouting in video clips posted to TikTok during the chaos.
According to the videos, Palestinians were running or ducking for shelter as tracer fire lit up the night sky.
“I saw people shot in the head next to me. I crouched, waited, prayed I’d live long enough to bring food back to my family,” Mohammed Saqer, a survivor, told CNN. “We survived a night that was worse than we could imagine. The reality for people was one of death and hunger searching for food.”
The Israeli military declined to answer questions about CNN’s findings, per the report.
Robert Maher, a professor at Montana State University in the US, who specializes in forensic audio analysis, examined the footage for CNN and said the bursts of gunfire were at a rate of 15 and 16 shots per second (or 900 and 960 per minute), fired from a distance of about a quarter of a mile (450 meters).
“Since the cracks are irregular, it seems more like the gunfire was being sprayed over the area,” Maher was quoted.
According to the report, the doctors working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis shared photos with CNN of the bullets retrieved from patients who were injured and killed in the attack, which weapons experts said appear to match the type of ammunition used in the Israeli military’s machine guns.
At least 102 Palestinian civilians were killed and 490 injured while seeking humanitarian aid from Israeli-designated centers in Gaza in eight days, according to Gaza’s government.
Since March 2, Israel has kept all border crossings shut, cutting off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other essential supplies for Gaza’s 2.4 million residents.
The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 54,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Residents are seen fleeing the area with their belongings on horse carts, on foot, or in vehicles, heading toward areas they believe to be safer as Palestinians begin to evacuate following warnings from the Israeli army for an immediate mandatory evacuation of Khan Yunis in preparation for a potential Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on June 03, 2025. [Abdallah F.s. Alattar – Anadolu Agency]
The UN on Thursday said Israeli military displacement orders have forced more than 640,000 Palestinians to flee in the Gaza Strip since March, warning that nearly one-third of the population is under repeated evacuation orders, Anadolu reports.
Citing the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, “Yesterday, Israeli authorities issued another displacement order.”
“This time covering 54 neighborhoods across three governors — North Gaza, Gaza and Deir el Bala. This is the second order issued for the same area representing one-third of the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Saying that “since the renewed escalation of hostilities in March, the Israeli military issued 35 displacement orders,” Dujarric indicated that the Israeli orders forced “more than 640,000 people to flee again.
“That’s almost every third Palestinian in Gaza,” he added.
Dujarric raised the alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation, citing Israeli restrictions on aid access.
“Yesterday, Israeli authorities continued to deny humanitarian movements that required coordination,” he said, adding that “out of the 16 attempted attempts to coordinate such movements, five were rejected, including trucking water, retrieval of nutrition supplies and relocating fuel stocks.”
Six additional missions were not completed “either because of impediments or because organizers had to cancel them,” while only five were successfully carried out.
He added that the limited missions allowed aid workers “to screen children for malnutrition, provide medical services and carry out assessments,” but noted that “none of them involve the delivery of supplies, which are so desperately needed.”
Warning that “supplies continue to dwindle,” Dujarric reported that half of Gaza’s community kitchens are now closed because of displacement or shortages, and emphasized that what is currently entering Gaza “is merely a trickle.”
The Israeli army resumed its assaults on the enclave on March 18 and has since killed 4,402 victims and injured nearly 13,490, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Over 300 Foreign Office officials who collectively raised concerns about the government’s handling of the Gaza genocide have been slapped down by their Whitehall superiors in a letter described by a former senior diplomat as “shameful”.
Sir Oliver Robbins and Nick Dyer, the two most senior civil servants in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), reminded a group of officials that while they welcomed “healthy challenge”, there were other “mechanisms available to those who are uncomfortable” with policy besides applying collective pressure – including resignation.
In mid-May, officials wrote to foreign secretary David Lammy urging the government to end its collaboration with Israel and comply with international law.
In their response, seen exclusively by Novara Media and published in full below, Robbins and Dyer suggested that employees worried that the government may be enabling war crimes speak to their line managers, vent to a staff counsellor or resign, the last of which they described as “an honourable course”.
A former senior British diplomat described Robbins and Dyer’s letter to Novara Media as “shameful” and “a sneering fob off” to staff acting on “deep personal conscience”. They called on the House of Commons foreign affairs committee to investigate the exchange.
Zarah Sultana, an MP currently suspended from the Labour whip for opposing the two-child benefit cap, told Novara Media: “This is what happens when a government enables genocide: it silences its own workers, censors questions and dares them to quit rather than change course.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg stands near a Palestinian flag after boarding the Madleen boat and before setting sail for Gaza along with activists of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, departing from the Sicilian port of Catania, Italy, June 1, 2025
