Catania, Italy AP —

Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and other 11 activists set sail on Sunday afternoon for Gaza on a ship aimed at “breaking Israel’s siege” of the devastated territory, organizers said.

The sailing boat Madleen – operated by activist group Freedom Flotilla Coalition — departed from the Sicilian port of Catania, in southern Italy.

It will try to reach the shores of the Gaza Strip in an effort to bring in some aid and raise “international awareness” over the ongoing humanitarian crisis, the activists said at a press conference on Sunday, ahead of departure.

“We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying,” Thunberg said, bursting into tears during her speech.

“Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the live-streamed genocide,” she added.

Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic “blood libel.”

In mid-May, Israel slightly eased its blockade of Gaza after nearly three months, allowing a limited amount of humanitarian aid into the territory.

Experts have warned that Gaza is at risk of famine if more aid is not brought in.

UN agencies and major aid groups say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order, and widespread looting make it extremely difficult to deliver aid to Gaza’s roughly two million Palestinians.

Also joining the crew of the Madleen is Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament who is of Palestinian descent. She has been barred from entering Israel due to her active opposition to the Israeli assault on Gaza.

The activists expect to take seven days to get to their destination, if they are not stopped.

Thunberg, who became an internationally famous climate activist after organizing massive teen protests in her native Sweden, had been due to board a previous Freedom Flotilla ship last month.

That attempt to reach Gaza by sea, in early May, failed after another of the group’s vessels, the “Conscience”, was attacked by two alleged drones while sailing in international waters off the coast of Malta.

The group blamed Israel for the attack, which damaged the front section of the ship, in the latest confrontation over efforts to send assistance to the Palestinian territory devastated by nearly 19 months of war.

The Israeli government says the blockade is an attempt to pressure Hamas to release hostages it took during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the conflict. Hamas-led militants assaulted southern Israel that day, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas is still holding 58 hostages, 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

In response, Israel launched an offensive that has killed over 52,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Israel’s bombardment and ground operations have destroyed vast areas of the territory and left most of its population homeless.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg stands near a Palestinian flag after boarding the Madleen boat on June 1, 2025. Salvatore Cavalli/AP

The Flotilla group was only the latest among a growing number of critics to accuse Israel of genocidal acts in its war in Gaza. Israel vehemently denies the allegations, saying its war is directed at Hamas militants, not Gaza’s civilians.

“We are breaking the siege of Gaza by sea, but that’s part of a broader strategy of mobilizations that will also attempt to break the siege by land,” said activist Thiago Avila.

Avila cited the upcoming Global March to Gaza – an international initiative also open to doctors, lawyers and media – which is set to leave Egypt and reach the Rafah crossing in mid-June to stage a protest there, asking Israel to stop the Gaza offensive and reopen the border.

CNN —

Israel’s blockade of Gaza may have been partially lifted – and a new US-backed plan to deliver aid has begun. But there are multiple indications that the plight of Gazans is rapidly worsening.

Restrictions imposed by the Israeli military on aid routes, ongoing airstrikes, a lack of security and the continuous displacement of tens of thousands of people are aggravating an already alarming situation, according to the UN and other aid agencies. The supplies that do get in risk getting looted.

“People in Gaza are starving. This demands the urgent opening of all crossings and allowing unimpeded access for humanitarian organizations to deliver aid at scale, through multiple routes,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest assessment.

One woman, Umm Zuhair, who was trying to get food for her family on Sunday at one of newly established aid distribution sites, told CNN: “We’re so hungry that we’re willing to risk getting shot just for a kilo of flour.”

The number of children in Gaza with acute malnutrition is rising, the UN reported Saturday, while a lack of fuel threatens to close hospitals that are still operating.

The Israeli agency handling the inspection of aid going into Gaza, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said Saturday that 350 trucks containing humanitarian aid had entered the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the last week – less than 20 per cent of the volume of goods getting into Gaza before the conflict.

And even the aid that gets in frequently does not make it to the most desperate. UN agencies report continuing difficulties with getting distribution routes within Gaza agreed with the Israeli military. OCHA said that out of 16 truckloads ready for distribution last Thursday, five were rejected, including fuel and water, and six failed to reach their destination.

Additionally, the looting of aid convoys in Gaza has risen sharply in recent weeks.

“Operations have faced unprecedented levels of insecurity and a very high risk of looting, with partners reporting that most looting incidents are conducted by desperate civilians,” according to OCHA.

People carry relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in central Gaza on Sunday. Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

Nahed Shehaibar, head of the Private Transport Association in Gaza, said on Saturday that transport of aid had been suspended “for the third consecutive day due to repeated attacks on trucks, including gunfire that has damaged and put several trucks out of service.”

Last week the association reported that one driver was killed and another injured while trying to deliver aid, but Shehaibar said on Sunday that 11 trucks of commercial goods had reached merchants in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza successfully.

The distribution of aid through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the US and Israeli-backed aid initiative that started operating late last month, has been dogged by security issues.

On Sunday, GHF said it operated three distribution sites – two in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza – to hand out more than 17,000 boxes of food. In addition, GHF said in its daily update that it gave more than 10,000 meals to community leaders north of Rafah in what the organization called a pilot test of “direct-to-community distribution.”

But many people who went to the Netzarim site in central Gaza left empty-handed.

Mohammad Salim told CNN: “I went at 6 a.m. and found nothing. What’s happening is shameful. I’m holding an empty cardboard box – there’s nothing inside, not even lentils.”

He said some people took more than they needed and complained there was no ID-based distribution system, as operated by the UN. CNN has previously reported that GHF has no system in place to screen aid recipients.

Nader Musleh, who had walked from Al-Mawasi several kilometers away, agreed.

“Some people took five or 10 boxes, and there’s no organization at all,” he said.

Mohammad Abu Akouz was one of several civilians who alleged that some people were injured after coming under Israeli tank fire as they made their way to the site.

An Israeli military official told CNN that Israeli forces fired what they called “warning shots” from an armored vehicle approximately a kilometer from the distribution site. The official said the area is an active war zone.

GHF said it had been unable to open its sites on Saturday, accusing Hamas of making threats against its operations, including against drivers and Palestinian workers. It said the threats had made it impossible to proceed without putting innocent lives at risk.

A driver familiar with the operation, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told CNN on Sunday that Hamas had “threatened the bus drivers responsible for transporting workers to the three American aid distribution points, warning them not to continue the transfers.”

The drivers had been scheduled to move 180 employees to the three distribution sites, he added.

GHF said on Friday that it had distributed more than 140,000 boxes of food, with each box intended to feed a family for half a week. The boxes contain pasta, lentils and cooking oil, among other products. GHF says its goal is to distribute boxes containing enough food for 4.5 million meals each day.

Palestinians pray during a funeral for those who were killed on their way to a Gaza aid hub at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, on June 1. Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

After last week’s shootings, GHF appealed to people not to arrive at distribution points “before the official opening time or gather near the gates ahead of schedule. This is for your safety and the safety of others.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Saturday in a post on X that gathering outside distribution centers outside of announced hours was “strictly prohibited,” and warned that the areas around the aid hubs were closed military zones between 6 p.m. (11 a.m. ET) and 6 a.m. (11 p.m. ET).

The UN says that the use of the Israeli and American-backed GHF has militarized aid distribution and is inadequate for the huge task of feeding families in Gaza. GHF has no presence in northern Gaza.

In its latest assessment, OCHA said that 90 per cent of families in Gaza lack the cash needed to buy what little food remains available in markets. “Meat, dairy, vegetables and fruit are nearly absent from people’s diets,” it said.

Half of the community kitchens in Gaza have been forced to stop cooking due to lack of supplies or displacement orders, according to OCHA.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – the main agency for supplying aid in Gaza – said Saturday that a nutrition study had found that the percentage of children under 5 suffering from acute malnutrition had risen from 4.7% in the first half of May to 5.8% in the second half of the month.

UNRWA said the number of children forced to fend for themselves had pushed an increasing number into “dangerous survival strategies. Children are reported working on the streets, participating in looting or gathering within large crowds in search of food supplies at insecure distribution points.”

It’s not just food that is running chronically short.

Dr. Mohamed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, told CNN on Sunday that the few hospitals in Gaza still operating “will completely shut down within two days if fuel does not enter.”

He added that “a large number of the wounded cannot be treated due to the lack of blood supplies and medical equipment,” and medical staff faced difficult choices about which patients to save.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Sunday that Al-Shifa Hospital and the Baptist Ahli Hospital, both in northern Gaza, were at risk of shutting down service within 24 hours. It said that would mean the collapse of what remains of the healthcare system in Gaza City.

In the south, the Health Ministry said the Nasser Medical Complex was operating on a limited fuel supply that will last no more than two days.

CNN —

The photo shows a lean, tanned man in a dark helmet. He’s grasping a rifle and UN vehicles move behind him as he waves through traffic.

The man is Yasser Abu Shabab, who says he commands hundreds of armed men known as the Popular Forces to offer protection to international organizations working in southern Gaza.

In his early thirties, Abu Shabab is from a prominent Bedouin family in southern Gaza. On October 7, 2023, he was languishing in a Hamas-run jail in Gaza, accused of drug trafficking, before being released after the conflict started.

Now he is an emerging presence in southern Gaza, controlling aid routes near the crucial Kerem Shalom crossing and providing men to guard convoys against looting, which has only worsened since limited aid started entering Gaza in mid-May following an Israeli blockade.

As Hamas’ grip on Gaza has weakened and the territory’s police force has been hollowed out, gangs have emerged to steal humanitarian aid from convoys and re-sell it. But many convoys are also stopped and ransacked by desperate civilians.

Abu Shabab told CNN that he leads “a group of citizens from this community who have volunteered to protect humanitarian aid from looting and corruption.”

The reality is more complicated.

Israeli officials have acknowledged providing weapons to Abu Shabab’s militia, as part of an operation to arm local groups to counter Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the covert enterprise earlier this week, saying the security forces had “activated clans in Gaza which oppose Hamas.” He did not name Abu Shabab, but Israeli officials told CNN that Abu Shabab is part of the program.

Abu Shabab insisted to CNN that his men had not received weapons from the Israelis. “Our equipment is extremely basic, passed down by volunteers from their forefathers or assembled from limited local resources.”

For its part, Hamas says Abu Shabab is a traitor and a gangster. Last week, the group said: “We pledge before God to continue confronting the dens of that criminal and his gang, no matter the cost of the sacrifices we make.”

Hamas killed his brother last year and has tried to kill Abu Shabab at least twice, according to Muhammad Shehada, a Gaza analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

In response to written questions from CNN, Abu Shabab repeatedly denied any connection with the Israeli military, saying: “Our forces do not engage in any form of communication with the Israeli army, neither directly nor indirectly.”

Analysts find that difficult to believe, based on evidence of his movements in Israeli-controlled areas of Gaza. One video from late May shows Abu Shabab stopping a Red Cross vehicle and talking with an official. CNN geolocated the encounter to an Israeli-controlled buffer zone close to the crossing point at Kerem Shalom. Other videos show encounters with United Nations’ convoys in the same area.

Israel – and in particular Netanyahu – has never laid out clear plans for what governance and security in Gaza might look like if or when Hamas is defeated. Israel has been trying to find groups or clans opposed to Hamas who might play a role, but more recently Netanyahu and other ministers endorsed a plan put forward by US President Donald Trump for relocating Gaza’s residents and redeveloping the territory.

A growing role

Abu Shabab has had a presence near the ruins of Gaza’s long defunct airport in Rafah since late last year. Shehada at the ECFR said that while the ceasefire held earlier this year, his group appeared to vanish.

But his significance has grown in recent weeks, since Israeli authorities began to allow a trickle of aid to reach Gaza through Kerem Shalom in mid-May. Abu Shabab’s social media presence, along with slick videos and fluent English commentary, has expanded.

“It’s nearly impossible this is being done inside Gaza,” Shehada said. “It’s probably someone outside that is running this entire psy-op.”

A diplomatic official told CNN that the UN had to deal with local elements as it tried to distribute aid, whether they are backed by Hamas or not.

A truck carrying aid makes its way to Gaza at the Kerem Shalom crossing on May 19. Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

Abu Shabab “has a few square kilometers of an area under his control, and then it’s on to the next guy,” the official said. “The fact that he is not targeted by the Israelis is a clear indication of how they see him.”

The official also asserted that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – the controversial new US-backed organization tasked with distributing aid in Gaza – had contact with Abu Shabab, whether directly or indirectly.

Abu Shabab responded to CNN that “with regard to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, we stress the need for its work to operate within a unified national framework and to maintain continuous coordination with all legitimate parties.”

GHF told CNN on Sunday that it had no collaboration at all with Abu Shabab’s group. “We do have local Palestinian workers we are very proud of but none is armed and they do not belong to Abu Shabab’s organization,” GHF said.

Convoys and more

Last month, soon after limited aid began entering Gaza, Abu Shabab posted that his group had secured 101 trucks of aid, mostly flour, brought in by the World Food Programme, and praised “my loyal brothers who sacrificed their lives, and everyone who volunteered their primitive weapons or a drop of sweat to feed the bereaved and displaced.”

Truck drivers told CNN that Shabab had provided 200 armed men to protect the convoys.

“Our forces regularly accompany aid convoys, and protecting vulnerable civilians is one of our top priorities,” Abu Shabab told CNN.

His group’s role has expanded beyond protecting convoys.

On May 17, the day before the Kerem Shalom crossing reopened, work started on a tent encampment in eastern Rafah, according to satellite imagery reviewed by CNN. That work appears to have concluded on May 30.

The camp is less than 500 meters from where Abu Shabab runs checkpoints.

Members of the Popular Forces can be seen in this image posted on the group’s Facebook page. From Popular Forces/Facebook

Four days later the so-called Popular Forces issued a statement saying that Abu Shabab “invites the residents of these areas to return, where food, drink, shelter, security and safety have been provided, shelter camps have been set up, and humanitarian relief routes have been opened.”

The encampment is in an area known as the Morag Corridor, to which the Israeli military wants Gazans to move as it orders evacuation orders for much of the strip.

Early in May, the far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the population of Gaza, would be “concentrated” in a narrow strip of land between the Egyptian border and the corridor.

A senior Israeli security official said at the same time that the goal was to separate humanitarian aid from Hamas “by involving civilian companies and creating a secured zone patrolled by the IDF.”

This would include a “sterile area in the Rafah region beyond the Morag route, where IDF will screen all entrants to prevent Hamas infiltrators.”

Palestinian branding

Abu Shabab’s force uses Palestinian insignia and flags prominently on its uniforms, but he told CNN that his “grassroots forces are not an official authority, nor are we operating under a direct mandate from the Palestinian Authority.”

The office of the spokesperson for the Palestinian Security Forces, Major General Anwar Rajab, told CNN there was no connection between the Palestinian security apparatus and Abu Shabab’s group.

Nor does his family want anything to do with him.

“Leaders and elders of the Abu Shabab family” said in a statement that they had confronted him about videos showing “Yasser’s groups involved in dangerous security engagements, even working within undercover units and supporting the Zionist occupation forces that brutally kill our people.”

The family declared its “complete disassociation from Yasser Abu Shabab” and urged anyone who had joined his security groups to do the same.

“We have no objection to those around him eliminating him immediately; we state clearly that his blood is wasted,” the family statement said.

Abu Shabab told CNN that the statement was “fabricated and false” and accompanied by “a media campaign targeting me and my colleagues.”

He said his group had endured “false accusations and systematic smear campaigns, and we have paid a heavy price,” also alleging that Hamas had killed several of the group’s volunteers “and members of my own family while we were guarding aid convoys for international organizations.”

Yasser Abu Shabab can be seen in this image posted on the Popular Forces’ Facebook page. From Popular Forces/Facebook

Muhammad Shehada at ECFR said there is evidence that Abu Shabab’s presence is expanding with Israeli support into Khan Younis, to the north of his stronghold.

Even so, his reach is still limited. The Popular Forces speaks of “hundreds of daily requests we receive on our Facebook page from individuals seeking to join us,” but analysts believe Abu Shabab probably has only about 300 men under his command.

Most people in Gaza would never think of joining him for fear of being branded collaborators, said Shehada.

Even so, he added, Abu Shabab’s militia now serve multiple functions for the Israelis, helping control where aid goes, or does not go; trying to entice desperate and hungry people to the so-called ‘safe zone’ in eastern Rafah; and carrying out high-risk missions to detect the presence of Hamas fighters.

By Oren Liebermann, CNN

(CNN) — The Israeli military says it has recovered the body of de facto Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar in a tunnel underneath the European Hospital in southern Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) made the announcement on Sunday after the body went through an identification process.

Sinwar is the younger brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the Israeli military in southern Gaza in October.

His death marks the latest in a string of assassinations that have dealt a serious blow to the group’s top brass but are yet to break its grip on power in the besieged enclave.

The elusive Sinwar was targeted in a massive airstrike on the hospital in Khan Younis on May 13, a day after Hamas released Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander.

At the time, the IDF claimed it had struck “Hamas terrorists in a command-and-control center” in underground infrastructure at the hospital.

But it took more than two weeks for Israel to say that it had definitively killed Sinwar in the strike.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement on the 600th day of the war two weeks ago.

“We changed the face of the Middle East, we pushed the terrorists from our territories, we entered the Gaza Strip with force, we eliminated tens of thousands of terrorists, we eliminated (Mohammad) Deif, (Ismail) Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar,” Netanyahu said in a speech at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

The attack killed 28 Palestinians and wounded more than 50 others, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said after the strike.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire

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CNN —

Israel has intercepted a Gaza-bound aid ship carrying Greta Thunberg and other prominent activists, detaining those onboard and taking them to Israel.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said the Israeli military had “attacked” and “unlawfully boarded” the “Madleen,” which was attempting to deliver aid to Gaza – where more than 600 days of war, and an 11-week Israeli blockade of all aid, has pushed the enclave’s 2.1 million people deeper into a hunger crisis.

Climate activist Thunberg and Rima Hassan — a French member of the European Parliament — are among those on the “Madleen.”

“(The vessel) is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. The passengers are expected to return to their home countries,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a post on X early Monday local time.

The foreign ministry posted a video showing members of the “Madleen” crew sitting side by side wearing orange life jackets while a solider offers them bottled water and plastic-wrapped sandwiches. Thunberg can be seen sitting near the front of the group.

The FFC had earlier said the ship had come “under assault in international waters,” in a Telegram post.

“Quadcopters are surrounding the ship, spraying it with a white paint-like substance. Communications are jammed, and disturbing sounds are being played over the radio,” the FFC said. A video posted by Israel’s foreign ministry appeared to show a Navy staffer sending a radio message to the vessel saying the “maritime zone off the coast of Gaza was closed.”

In a video livestreamed from the boat, activist Yasmin Acar showed a white substance on the deck, saying it had been dropped on the vessel. Acar was later heard saying it was affecting her eyes.

The FFC group also posted a video on Telegram, showing members of the crew sitting inside the boat with their hands in the air.

After losing communication with the vessel, the FFC began posting pre-recorded video messages from Thunberg and others onboard. “If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel,” Thunberg said in her video.

In a statement, the FFC said Israel had acted with “total impunity” and that the vessel’s cargo, which included baby formula, food and medical supplies was “confiscated.” Israel said it would transfer the goods to Gaza through humanitarian channels.

“Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard the Madleen,” said Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney and Freedom Flotilla organizer. “This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the (International Court of Justice’s) binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.”

Israel had repeatedly vowed to stop the aid boat from reaching Gaza, and described the ship as a “selfie yacht” carrying “celebrities.”

Crew members of the “Madleen” are seen with their hands in the air as the Israeli military comes aboard, in this image from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. Freedom Flotilla Coalition/Freedom Flotilla Coalition/Teleg

“I have instructed the IDF to ensure that the ‘Madleen’ flotilla does not reach Gaza,” Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said on Sunday.

After the flotilla crew members were detained, Katz said in a post on X that he had instructed the military to screen videos of the Hamas attacks on Israel from October 7, 2023 to the activists upon their arrival at Ashdod Port.

Israel’s foreign ministry said the group “attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity.”

“There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip — they do not involve Instagram selfies,” it added.

In an earlier statement on Monday, the ministry said “unauthorized attempts to breach the blockade are dangerous, unlawful, and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts.”

Hamas demanded the immediate release of the activists and condemned their detention in a statement, calling the interception “a flagrant violation of international law, and an attack on civilian volunteers acting out of humanitarian motives.”

The “Madleen” is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an organization that has campaigned against Israel’s blockade of Gaza and tried to break the siege by boat.

The crew, which had publicized the location of the ship with an online tracker, began preparing for the possibility of interception by the Israeli military. On Monday morning, the UK-flagged civilian vessel was north of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, slowly approaching the coast of Gaza, but the tracker has since appeared to have stopped.

“We know that it’s a very risky mission and we know that previous experiences with flotillas like this have resulted in attacks, violence and even cases of death,” Thunberg told CNN on Saturday.

Israel imposed a full humanitarian blockade of Gaza on March 2, cutting off food, medical supplies, and other aid to the more than 2 million Palestinians who live in the territory for 11 weeks.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry released this image of Greta Thunberg being offered a plastic-wrapped pastrami sandwich and a bottle of water after those onboard the “Madleen” were detained by Israel’s military. Israel Foreign Ministry

Faced with growing international pressure, Israel began allowing a trickle of aid in late May. But humanitarian organizations say it is only a fraction of the aid that entered the enclave before the war, and have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis and the growing risk of widespread famine. A UN-backed report warned in late April that one in five people were facing starvation.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed over the past week while on their way to try and obtain aid from a new US-backed group commissioned to deliver aid to Gaza, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The group is intended to replace the UN-led system of distributing aid in Gaza. The United Nations has warned that the new distribution mechanism has become a “death trap” for desperate people seeking food in the strip.

Last month, another vessel from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition came under what its organizers claimed was an Israeli drone attack off the coast of Malta in international waters. The group did not provide evidence that the drone was Israeli, while the Israeli military has declined to comment on the alleged attack.

The ship, the “Conscience,” was heading to Malta, where a large contingent of activists, including Thunberg, were due to board before it departed for Gaza.

The later voyage on the “Madleen,” which was intercepted by Israel, departed from Sicily last Friday.

An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated Irish actor Liam Cunningham was onboard the Madleen. The FFC has confirmed he is not onboard.