• Tel Aviv deports Greta Thunberg after intercepting Gaza-bound aid boat
• Climate campaigner says she was ‘kidnapped’ in international waters

CAIRO: Israeli gunfire killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded dozens as thousands of displaced people approached an aid distribution site of a US-backed humanitarian group in central Gaza on Tuesday, local health authorities said.

Medics said the casualties were rushed to two hospitals, the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, and the Al-Quds in Gaza City, in the north.

The Israeli military said its forces had fired warning shots at “suspects who were advancing in the area of Wadi Gaza and posed a threat to the troops”.

It added that it was aware of reports that several were injured, but said numbers released by local health authorities did not align with the information it had collected.

Separately, local health authorities said an Israeli strike on a house in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza Strip killed eight people, taking Tuesday’s death toll to at least 25.

The Israeli military said it had intercepted one rocket fired from northern Gaza towards Israeli territories.

Last week the army warned Palestinians not to approach routes leading to sites of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) between 6pm and 6am local time, describing these roads as closed military zones.

There was no immediate GHF comment on Tuesday’s incident.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral.

“Day after day, casualties & scores of injured are reported at distribution points manned by Israel & private security companies,” Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), wrote on X.

“This humiliating system continues to force thousands of hungry & desperate people to walk for tens of miles excluding the most vulnerable & those living too far,” he said.

While the GHF has said there have been no incidents at its distribution sites, Palestinians seeking aid have described disorder, and access routes to the sites have been beset by chaos and deadly violence.

Thunberg deported

Meanwhile, Israel deported campaigner Greta Thunberg on a flight to Sweden via France on Tuesday, after detaining her along with other activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat.

Of the 12 people on board the Madleen carrying food and supplies for Gaza, five French activists were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily.

Israeli forces intercepted the boat, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, in international waters on Monday and towed it to the port of Ashdod.

They then transferred them to Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, the foreign ministry said, from where Thunberg flew to France ahead of a scheduled flight to Sweden.

On arrival in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, 22-year-old Thunberg accused Israel of “kidnapping us in international waters and taking us against our will to Israel”.

“This is yet another intentional violation of rights that is added to the list of countless other violations that Israel is committing,” she said.

Thunberg, one of the world’s most prominent voices in the fight against climate change, has avoided air travel for years, and once sailed for a fortnight on a zero-emissions yacht to reach a UN summit in New York.

Five French activists who were also aboard the Madleen were set to face an Israeli judge, the French foreign minister said.

“Our consul was able to see the six French nationals arrested by the Israeli authorities last night,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X.

“One of them has agreed to leave voluntarily and should return today. The other five will be subject to forced deportation proceedings.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2025