Group of activists onboard the Madleen, which was carrying symbolic amount of food and supplies for Gaza, were intercepted in international waters
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s coverage of the Middle East.
Israel on Tuesday said Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was leaving the country on a flight to France, after she was detained along with other activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat and taken to a Tel Aviv airport for deportation.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has said Hamas “must hand over its weapons” and called for deployment of Arab and international forces to “provide protection to the Palestinian people”, the Elysee announced Tuesday. In a letter addressed on Monday to French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who will co-chair a conference on the two-state solution, Abbas said he was “ready to invite Arab and international forces to be deployed as part of a stabilisation/protection mission with a Security Council mandate.”
Israel has attacked docks in Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeidah, targeting facilities that are key to aid shipments to the country. Late on Monday, Israel had issued warnings online for Yemenis to evacuate from Ras Isa, Hodeidah and al-Salif ports. The Israeli military said in a statement on Tuesday: “The port is used to transfer weapons and is a further example of the Houthi terrorist regime’s cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure in order to advance terrorist activities.”
Environmental charity Greenpeace said that the Madleen, the aid ship transporting Greta Thunberg and other activists, was “illegally seized in international waters by Israeli forces” and called for the “immediate release” of its crew. It also called for “unhindered delivery of aid” and an “end to the illegal occupation of Palestine”.
The BBC reports that Palestinians in Gaza say they were fired on by Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen once again as they visited the aid distribution centres run by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Monday.
Trump should summon Netanyahu to the White House and, facing cameras, tell the Israeli leader: “‘Bibi: enough is enough’”, Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister between 2006 and 2009, tells AFP. “This is it. I hope he [Trump] will do it. There is nothing that cannot happen with Trump. I don’t know if this will happen. We have to hope and we have to encourage him.”
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