{"id":51119,"date":"2025-10-02T11:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T11:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/51119\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T11:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T11:29:12","slug":"balkan-activists-detained-as-israel-intercepts-gaza-aid-flotilla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/51119\/","title":{"rendered":"Balkan Activists Detained as Israel Intercepts Gaza Aid Flotilla"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A vessel of the Global Sumud Flotilla arriving at Ashdod port on 2 October 2025 after being intercepted whilst carrying aid to Gaza. Photo: EPA\/ATEF SAFADI.<\/p>\n

Greek, Turkish, Serbian and Bulgarian citizens are among the activists who have been detained by the Israeli Navy following its raid on vessels participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was transporting humanitarian aid to Gaza. After being detained, they are expected to be deported.<\/p>\n

Four of the six Greek ships in the flotilla were intercepted by the Israelis; the\u00a0Oxygono, Pavlos Fyssas, Ahed Tamimi and Vangelis Pissias.\u00a0Their crews, in addition to Greeks, also contain foreign citizens.<\/p>\n

The Greek Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the 27 Greeks involved are \u201cin good health, and there is no evidence that violence was used against them\u201d. It said the vessels are being escorted to Ashdod in Israel, where \u201cprocedures for the registration and deportation of those on board will follow\u201d.<\/p>\n

Turkish prosecutors on Thursday said they are investigating the detention of 24 of its citizens on the Gaza-bound flotilla.<\/p>\n

The Istanbul Prosecutor\u2019s Office said it had launched a probe under the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea related to hijacking and other crimes, allegedly committed by Israeli forces against the flotilla, the Turkish public broadcaster TRT World reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned<\/a> the Israeli interception, describing it as a \u201cterrorist act\u201d by Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government, which \u201ctargeted civilians acting peacefully\u201d. It said that \u201call necessary steps are being taken to secure the immediate release of our citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Bulgarian citizen, Vasil Dimitrov, is also among those detained. Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov told media on Thursday that the authorities are in contact with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe activists themselves are aware that martial law has been declared in Israel, so the risk they took is understood and taken consciously. We have contacted the Israeli authorities, informed them that there is a Bulgarian citizen, and called on them to comply with the norms of international law. We will have more information when our local consul meets Vasil Dimitrov,\u201d said Zhelyazkov.<\/p>\n

One Serbian activist, Ognjen Markovic, a student of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at Belgrade University in the Serbian capital, has also been detained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t describe the anger and concern we are feeling at this moment, waiting and searching for information that would confirm our colleague and the other participants in this mission are safe,\u201d students of the faculty wrote on Instagram on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

They called for an \u201cimmediate response from our (Serbian) authorities as well as from Miroljub Petrovic, the Serbian ambassador in Israel, to urgently release information about Ognjen and all the volunteers who were arrested in this action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those on the flotilla is a Croatian lawyer, Morana Miljanovic, who is also captain of one of the ships trying to deliver aid to besieged Gaza. Her status is currently unknown. Her boat is small enough not to need a GPS tracker.<\/p>\n

Last week, Miljanovic urged international protection for the flotilla, after Italy and Spain each sent a military ship to protect the humanitarian convoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Croatian citizen, unfortunately, I have nothing similar in the sense that the Croatian government would promise something like that, or say anything about respecting international law and protecting me as a Croatian citizen in international waters from illegal attack,\u201d she said from her ship. \u201cI hereby appeal to Croatia to do something about this issue,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Since August, 23 of the 44 vessels participating in the mission have been intercepted<\/a> by the Israeli Navy. The flotilla started its journey in August; it carries medicine and food to Gaza and consists of 44 boats with around 500 passengers, including parliamentarians, lawyers and activists. Among them are the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, the French politician Marie Mesmeur, and the French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan.<\/p>\n

The Israeli Foreign ministry has said it will deport all activists that were on board the vessels taking part in the flotilla.<\/p>\n

Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023 in response to a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.<\/p>\n

Most of Gaza\u2019s population has been repeatedly displaced and more than 90 per cent of homes are believed damaged or destroyed. Some 65,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.<\/p>\n

A UN-backed body has confirmed that a famine is under way in Gaza City and its surroundings, in what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called \u201ca man-made disaster, a moral indictment \u2013 and a failure of humanity itself\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A vessel of the Global Sumud Flotilla arriving at Ashdod port on 2 October 2025 after being intercepted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17667,39244,50,916,85,46,43,48,39245,1582],"class_list":{"0":"post-51119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-bulgaria","9":"tag-croatia","10":"tag-gaza","11":"tag-greece","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-palestine","16":"tag-serbia","17":"tag-turkey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}