has confirmed<\/a> that the 27 Greeks taking part in the flotilla are in \u201cgood health and there is no indication that violence has been used against them.\u201d<\/p>\nSouth Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa joined international condemnation of Israel\u2019s move, calling it a \u201cgrave offence\u201d against \u201cglobal solidarity and sentiment that is aimed at relieving suffering in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa says the interception in international waters reinforced Israel\u2019s continued violation of international law and called on Israel to immediately release South Africans who were on the flotilla, including former president Nelson Mandela\u2019s grandson, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela.<\/p>\n
The activists are expected to be transferred to the immigration authority upon arrival in Ashdod, from where they will be moved to Ketziot Prison in southern Israel before they are deported, said Suhad Bishara, the director at Adalah, a human rights organization and legal center in Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main concern of this stage, of course, their well-being, their health condition, as well, making sure that they all get the legal advice prior to the hearings, during the hearings in the Immigration Tribunal and while [they are] in Israeli prison,\u201d Bishara told Reuters on Thursday.<\/p>\n
High profile opposition to Gaza blockade<\/p>\n
The flotilla, which set sail in late August, is transporting medicine and food to Gaza and consists of more than 40 civilian vessels with about 500 parliamentarians, lawyers and activists. It\u2019s the highest-profile symbol of opposition to Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza.<\/p>\n
The flotilla\u2019s progress across the Mediterranean Sea garnered international attention as nations including Turkey, Spain and Italy sent boats or drones in case their nationals required assistance, even as it triggered repeated warnings from Israel to turn back.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s foreign ministry called Israel\u2019s \u201cattack\u201d on the flotilla \u201can act of terror\u201d that endangered the lives of innocent civilians.<\/p>\n
The Istanbul chief prosecutor\u2019s office said it had launched an investigation into the detention of 24 Turkish citizens on the vessels on charges including deprivation of liberty, seizure of transport vehicles and damage to property, Turkey\u2019s state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.<\/p>\n
Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered the expulsion of Israel\u2019s entire diplomatic delegation on Wednesday following the detention of two Colombians in the flotilla and terminated Colombia\u2019s free trade agreement with Israel.<\/p>\n
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim condemned Israel\u2019s actions and said Israeli forces had detained 23 Malaysians.<\/p>\n
Interception triggers global protests<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s interception of the flotilla sparked protests in Italy and Colombia, while protests were also called in Greece, Ireland and Turkey. Italian unions called a general strike for Friday.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s navy had previously warned the flotilla it was approaching an active combat zone and violating a lawful blockade, and asked organizers to change course. It had offered to transfer any aid peacefully through safe channels to Gaza.<\/p>\n
The flotilla is the latest seaborne attempt to break Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza, much of which has been turned into a wasteland by almost two years of war.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Hamas expressed support for the activists and called Israel\u2019s interception of the flotilla a \u201ccriminal act,\u201d calling for public protests to condemn Israel.<\/p>\n
The boats were about 70 nautical miles off Gaza when they were intercepted, inside a zone that Israel is policing to stop any boats approaching. The organizers said their communications, including the use of a live camera feed from some of the boats, had been scrambled.<\/p>\n
Israeli officials have repeatedly denounced the mission as a stunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis systematic refusal [to hand over the aid] demonstrates that the objective is not humanitarian, but provocative,\u201d Jonathan Peled, the Israeli ambassador to Italy, said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
Israel began its Gaza offensive after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. The offensive has killed over 66,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health authorities say. [Reuters, Kathimerini]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Israeli Navy vessel arrives at Ashdod Port, after Israel intercepted some of the vessels of the Global…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1153,32010,85,46,43,48,238],"class_list":{"0":"post-51223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-conflict","9":"tag-foreign-affairs","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-palestine","14":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51223","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=51223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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