Lindsey Graham has said he hopes the activist, who is sailing to Gaza to protest the Israeli naval blockade, can swim

Joining the flotilla that aims to break Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip may end badly for Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, US Senator Lindsey Graham has warned in a post on X.

On Sunday, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FCC) announced that one of its yachts, crewed by 12 people, including Thunberg, had left Sicily for Gaza with a "symbolic" cargo of humanitarian aid.

"Hope Greta and her friends can swim!" wrote Graham, a staunch supporter of Israel and an ally of US President Donald Trump, apparently implying that Thunberg's boat, the Madleen, could be sunk.

The previous Freedom Flotilla mission was aborted in early May after one of the boats, named Conscience, was hit by two drones in international waters near Malta. The FCC blamed Israel for the attack. Israel did not comment.

Thunberg said before her departure that "no matter how dangerous this mission is, it is nowhere near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the lives being genocized [sic]," in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has denied accusations of perpetrating genocide, and has blamed the brutal suffering of the Palestinian population on the unwillingness of Hamas to lay down arms. West Jerusalem has justified the naval blockade of Gaza, in place since 2007, by the need to prevent arms deliveries to the Palestinian fighters.

According to the UN, one in five people in the Gaza Strip is now facing starvation, following a renewed Israeli offensive that began in March.

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Israel began its military operation in the enclave in response to a cross-border raid by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people died and 250 others were taken prisoner. Israel's 18-month military response has killed more than 54,400 Palestinians, almost half of whom are women and children, and wounded over 124,000, according to the latest data from the enclave's Health Ministry.