(LONDON) — The Israeli Foreign Ministry said early Monday that Israeli forces had boarded and diverted a privately owned ship carrying Swedish human rights activist Greta Thunberg and several others, who said they were attempting to bring humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

The boat, the Madleen, was “safely making its way to the shores of Israel,” the ministry said in a statement, deriding the efforts by those aboard as a “media provocation.”

“The passengers are expected to return to their home countries,” the ministry said.

The ship had been approaching the coast of the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of breaking an Israeli blockade on aid via the sea and delivering humanitarian supplies to the territory. According to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the group that organized the aid

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