A former Press Democrat reporter and current Southern California journalist was taken into custody by the Israeli military Wednesday while aboard an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, according to U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez.
Emily Wilder, who worked at The Press Democrat from 2021 to 2022 before leaving to pursue a master’s degree at UCLA, was one of about 90 journalists and medical workers on the Conscience — a part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. The entire flotilla was carrying more than $110,000 worth of aid, including medicines and nutritional supplies, and was the latest attempting to break through Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, according to the coalition.
Israel maintains that the blockade is necessary to restrict weapons and materials from reaching Hamas, which governs Gaza, while humanitarian groups and U.N. officials have repeatedly called it a form of collective punishment. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a network of international activists, journalists and aid workers, has launched a series of missions since 2010 attempting to breach the blockade.
Wilder had been documenting her time aboard The Conscience on Instagram while on assignment for Jewish Currents, a New York-based progressive Jewish magazine and news site that reflects the politics of the Jewish left. In her most recent post, she said the flotilla was entering the “orange zone,” an area where many ships from previous missions had been apprehended.
The Conscience was intercepted about 120 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza early Wednesday, coalition organizers said. Israeli forces reportedly boarded the ship, detained everyone on board and towed the vessel to an Israeli port for processing. The precise number and status of detainees were not immediately known Thursday morning.
Alana Minkler, a current Press Democrat reporter and close friend of Wilder’s, said she last heard from her the morning before the flotilla was captured.
“I’ve known her since we were both 21 years old, running around Phoenix, covering the social justice protests during the pandemic,” Minkler said. “She has always been incredibly brave and social-justice oriented, committed to her values and to reporting about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“I am worried for her, but know that she would not want this to all be about her, but rather what she was trying to cover: the efforts to deliver aid to the Palestinians and the conditions of the Palestinian people.”
During Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, about 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 20,000 children — roughly 30% of the total — according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as cited by Reuters.
The campaign followed Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, in which the Palestinian militant group killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
In a report released in late September, a United Nations commission of inquiry said Israel has committed acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, accusing Israeli authorities of “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part,” as defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention. Israel has denied the accusation and condemned the report as politically motivated.
In a statement, Rep. Gomez, D-Los Angeles, said Wilder — one of his constituents — was among those detained and that his office is pressing for her safe release.
“Among the detained is my constituent Emily Wilder, a member of the press, who was reporting on the flotilla’s attempt to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” Gomez said. “As the Representative of Emily Wilder in Congress, I must insist on an immediate update from your department on the efforts being made to secure her safe treatment and immediate release.”
The detention came as Israel and Hamas agreed this week to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire and hostage exchange, the first phase of a broader peace framework announced Thursday. The deal calls for a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the release of remaining Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and expanded humanitarian access to the territory — a fragile step toward ending the war.