Gaza aid flotilla carrying five Irish citizens intercepted by Israel in international waters

Nine humanitarian aid boats bound for Gaza have been intercepted and all those on board, including five Irish citizens, detained by Israeli forces.

The fleet was sailing to Gaza as part of a joint mission by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and Thousand Madleens to Gaza (TMTG) when it was intercepted in international waters early Wednesday morning.

Israeli forces detained all 145 people on board (including elected officials, journalists and doctors) and confiscated over  €94,600 worth of humanitarian aid (medicine, baby formula, first aid supplies, prosthetic limbs and more) intended for civilians in Gaza.

Among those detained is Barry Heneghan, independent TD for Dublin Bay North, who spoke to Hot Press just yesterday from his boat. Irish author Naoise Dolan was also aboard the same boat.

Read the recent Hot Press interview with Barry Heneghan here.

TMTG posted pre-recorded videos from the crews on Instagram this morning, in which they urge those watching to demand their governments take action against Israel and to bring them home.

"If you're seeing this video, we've been intercepted at sea and I've been kidnapped by the Israeli Occupation Forces or forces of a country participating in Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people," said Heneghan in his video.

"I appeal to all my comrades, friends and family to put pressure on the Irish government to demand my immediate release."

Delivering her statement in Irish, Dolan said, "I was illegally abducted by Israeli forces and trafficked to prison there."

"Please rise up for a free Palestine, true Palestinian self-determination, an end to the genocide and the safe release of flotilla participants."

 

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Consciousness, the largest boat in the flotilla, carried Irish citizens Fionn Macarthure and Veronica O'Keane as well as Irish-Jordanian Mutaz Jadaan.

Tánaiste Simon Harris released a statement on the matter this morning.

"In this situation, my clear priority is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our citizens," Harris said,

"To this end, our Embassy team in Tel Aviv is in contact with Israeli authorities regarding next steps and the wellbeing of the Irish citizens who have been detained."

Harris said he expects the detained participants will be transferred to a port in Israel and then to a detention facility south of Tel Aviv, where representatives from the Irish embassy in Tel Aviv will visit them "as soon as possible."

"Officials from across my Department, including those in Embassy Tel Aviv, are actively engaged with the situation and are providing consular assistance to those affected," said Harris, adding, "I am due to receive an update from our Ambassador to Israel later this morning."

At the time of writing, organisers have said the participants' whereabouts are unknown and they have not been heard from since the interception.

"Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard these ships," said David Heap, Canadian organiser and member of the FFC Steering Committee, in a press release this morning.

"This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the ICJ’s binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza. Our volunteers are not subject to Israeli jurisdiction and cannot be criminalized for delivering aid or challenging an illegal blockade. Their detention is arbitrary, unlawful, and must end immediately."

The FFC website included a live tracking page for the fleet as well as a livestream of CCTV from some vessels, which captured the moments leading up to the interception.

The livestream as well as video taken from those on board shows around eight Israeli vessels surrounding the flotilla as some boats are boarded by Israeli soldiers.

One clip from the livestream shows heavily armed Israeli soldiers boarding the Gaza Sunbird boat, with one soldier climbing the mast and attempting to use a rifle to knock out the camera.

 

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The news follows the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), in which all 437 activists (including at least 15 Irish citizens) were abducted. Reports have circulated of Israeli captors violating the human rights of GSF participants while they were in custody.

The detained GSF participants are believed to have all been deported from Israel. Five of the Irish participants — including Cork comedian Tadhg Hickey, Clare poet Sarah Clancy and Sinn Féin senator Christopher Andrews — returned to Ireland yesterday.

Naoise Dolan's mother was part of the group of supporters welcoming them home.

"Of course there is [fear]," she said to press at the airport.

"But we have to do this. The government has failed in their job, so because they have failed, Naoise and all the other people have to put themselves at risk to get some action and to stop this genocide that's been livestreamed to our phones. As human beings, we cannot turn our backs."