Greta Thunberg has embarrassingly shared an image of an Israeli hostage in a post discussing the ‘suffering of Palestinian prisoners’.
Alongside images of Palestinians suffering injuries and being manhandled by IDF soldiers, Thunberg, 22, made a major blunder and shared a photo of Israeli Evyatar David, a hostage taken by Hamas from the Nova festival on October 7 2023.
David, 24, can be seen crouching down in what appears to be a Hamas tunnel, his emaciated body bearing all the signs of starvation as he writes a note piece of paper stuck to a wall.
The post read: ‘The suffering of Palestinian prisoners is not a matter of opinion – It is a fact of systemic cruelty and dehumanisation. Humanity cannot be selective. Justice cannot have borders.’
Social media users immediately lambasted Thunberg, with one writing: ‘Every minute you are not deleting the post you are becoming a bigger joke. Embarrassing’.
Israel model Noa Cochva, who was named Miss Universe Israel in 2021, wrote: ‘If you really cared about your beloved Palestinians, you’d put Evyatar face front and center and demand one thing: Bring every hostage home now.
‘Release them. Dismantle Hamas. That’s literally the only thing that can end this war.
‘Stop using our tragedy for your personal PR and start doing what can actually END THE WAR.
‘“Bring them home” is all you should be saying.’
Greta Thunberg (pictured) has embarrassingly shared an image of an Israeli hostage in a post discussing the ‘suffering of Palestinian prisoners’
Evyatar David, 24, (pictured) can be seen crouching down in what appears to be a Hamas tunnel
Thunberg accidentally used an image of Israeli hostage Evyatar David (pictured, bottom-right)
The activist shared the Instagram post on Monday – the same day she was deported to Greece from Israel after military forces detained her and 170 other activists from the Freedom Flotilla while on international waters.
Thunberg has come a long way from her days as an environmental activist. She has taken up the Palestinian cause, twice now attempting to reach the Gaza Strip to break Israel’s blockade of the enclave to allow for aid to reach starving people.
Yesterday, she alleged that she and other detainees of the Gaza flotilla were subjected to torture in the Israeli prison they were held.
Thunberg told a news conference in Stockholm that she and others were ‘kidnapped and tortured’ by the Israeli military.
She declined to elaborate, adding when pressed that she didn’t get clean water and that other detainees were deprived of critical medication.
‘Personally, I don’t want to share what I was subjected to because I don’t want it to make headlines and “Greta has been tortured”, because that’s not the story here,’ she said, adding that what they were subjected to paled in comparison to what people in Gaza experienced daily.
Israel’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment but has repeatedly denied mistreating the detainees.
‘All detainees … were given access to water, food, and restrooms; they were not denied access to legal counsel, and all their legal rights were fully upheld,’ a foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters last week.
Thunberg was part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a group of vessels that tried to reach Gaza to bring aid supplies and draw attention to the plight of the enclave, where most of the 2.2 million residents have been driven from their homes and the United Nations says hunger is rampant.
Greta Thunberg was met by cheering crowds of supporters as she arrived in Athens on Monday
In footage posted to X by the Israel Foreign Ministry, Swedish climate activist Thunberg is seen among those being detained by officials
Thunberg was detained along with 478 people in the flotilla and expelled from Israel on Monday.
Israel, which says reports of hunger in Gaza are exaggerated, has dismissed the flotilla as a publicity stunt benefiting Palestinian militant group Hamas. It had previously detained Thunberg at sea in a similar attempt to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza in June.
Swedish activists said on Saturday that Thunberg was shoved and forced to wear an Israeli flag during her detention, but Thunberg made no mention of it during Tuesday’s press conference.
Thunberg and other participants also complained that the Swedish government had not given them sufficient help while detained.
The government said in a statement on Tuesday that it had repeatedly advised against all travel to Gaza but that it had nevertheless provided consular support to the activists and stressed to Israel the importance of treating Swedish citizens well.
Donald Trump earlier branded Greta Thunberg a ‘trouble-maker’ with an ‘anger management problem’ and has suggested she see a doctor after the climate activist was deported from Israel.
When asked about Thunberg during a press conference at the Oval Office on Monday, the US president made some scathing remarks about the young activist.
‘She’s just a trouble-maker. You mean she’s no longer into the environment, now she’s into this?’
‘She has an anger management problem, I think she should see a doctor.’
But Thunberg was quick to fire back at Trump with a sarcastic Instagram post on Tuesday, in which she asked the president to give her tips on how to handle her apparent anger issues.
Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg raises her fist, upon arrival alongside activists who were sailing aboard vessels from the Gaza-bound aid flotilla before being stopped and detained by Israeli forces, greeted by a crowd of supporters, at the arrivals area of Athens International Airport on October 6, 2025
Thunberg clapped back at Trump with a sarcastic Instagram post
‘I heard Donald Trump once again has expressed his very flattering opinions on my character, and I appreciate his concerns for my mental health’, she wrote.
‘To Trump: I would kindly receive any recommendations you might have to deal with these so-called “anger management problems” since, judging by your impressive track record, you seem to be suffering from them too.’
This was the latest exchange between Thunberg and Trump after the president mocked the activist in 2019 when she was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.
Thunberg’s witty remark also comes after she spoke to reporters in Athens on Monday following her deportation from Israel.
‘Let me be very clear. There is a genocide going on,’ Thunberg told the crowd at the Athens airport referring to Israeli military action in Gaza.
‘Our international systems are betraying Palestinians. They are not even able to prevent the worst war crimes from happening,’ she said.
‘What we aimed to do with the Global Sumud Flotilla was to step up when our governments failed to do their legal obligation.’
