LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Early this morning, Israel's navy boarded a boat of activists attempting to land in Gaza. The 12 people on board were detained by Israel, among them environmental activist Greta Thunberg. They're expected to be released and sent back to their countries. The group hoped to draw attention to Israel's ongoing war in Gaza that's killed more than 55,000 Palestinians and put the entire population of some 2 million people at risk of famine, according to the U.N. For more on this and the situation in Gaza, NPR's Aya Batrawy joins us from Dubai. Good morning.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So what happened with this ship?
BATRAWY: Well, armed Israeli forces intercepted the ship - it had 12 activists on board - in international waters off the coast of the Gaza strip. And they also deployed drones overhead. Now, this group had tried to set sail to Gaza carrying aid last month, but the ship was attacked by an armed drone off the coast of Malta. Greta Thunberg and others on board this vessel, a different vessel, were posting online videos throughout their trip in the Mediterranean Sea, stressing they're all unarmed civilians carrying humanitarian cargo like baby formula and medical supplies for Gaza.
You know, they wanted to draw attention to what's been - what was nearly three months of a full Israeli blockade on Gaza that no food could enter, and also just show the ongoing restrictions around that. Israel called their effort a gimmick for publicity. Israel's defense minister also instructed soldiers to show these activists video of the deadly October 7 attack in 2023 by Hamas once they landed in Israel.
FADEL: So, Aya, this ship was trying to get aid into Gaza. What's the latest on the situation there?
BATRAWY: Well, Israeli airstrikes continue to strike homes and areas across Gaza. Just Saturday alone, Leila, the health ministry there says at least 108 people were killed. And some half a million people are starving, according to experts on hunger. We've documented this in our reporting, speaking with families who only eat one meal a day of boiled lentils distributed by charity kitchens. The U.N. says it's only been able to get into Gaza a few hundred trucks of aid in the past three weeks, but people are taking this food right off the trucks before it's even distributed because they're so hungry. And Israel instead is backing this new system that's distributing food through armed U.S. contractors, but people have been killed almost daily trying to get this food.
FADEL: Yeah. Tell us more about the shooting near one of those sites.
BATRAWY: Well, Gaza's health officials and witnesses we've been speaking to say more than a hundred people, among them women and kids trying to get food, have been killed by Israeli troops as they try to reach these two U.S.-run distribution sites at the southern tip of Gaza. This is an area that Israel says is an active battle zone, and it's cleared of its residents. So Israel says its forces, though, have been firing warning shots, and they defend the system as a way to keep aid from Hamas. But the bottom line, these distribution sites in Rafah are inaccessible to most people in Gaza. They're dangerous to reach. They don't distribute enough food to feed all of Gaza. Today, one of those sites was only open for 18 minutes. So this new Israeli...
FADEL: Oh, wow.
BATRAWY: ...Yeah - distribution system is also now being supported by a new armed Palestinian militia called Abu Shabab.
FADEL: OK, Israel's prime minister said last week that his government is arming clans in Gaza to counter Hamas. Tell us about this new militia that's being armed.
BATRAWY: So it's run by a man named Yasser Abu Shabab. This is a criminal who was in jail when the war started and was released in the chaos. His men are known looters who were accused by Palestinians of violently stealing aid off of U.N. trucks late last year. This was crippling U.N. efforts to feed people. The looting was in areas under Israeli control, and Hamas police were killed trying to stop them. Now, Abu Shabab and his men are now being armed by Israel and rebranding themselves in Facebook posts as a counterterror group, a popular militia.
They're being used also to secure the food that's entering these American-run distribution sites. But critics in Israel, including some hard-liners, are slamming this plan by the Israeli prime minister. And analysts say this is also very dangerous for Gaza, as well as anyone in Gaza who would want to challenge Hamas, because now they'll be seen as collaborators and agents of Israel like Abu Shabab and his men.
FADEL: That's Aya Batrawy in Dubai. Thank you, Aya.
BATRAWY: Thanks, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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