Rome sees protests over IDF interception of Gaza aid flotilla
Source: Haaretz latest headlines
The Greek foreign minister said Israeli authorities intercepted 39 boats heading for Gaza, as the Greek, British and Australian governments confirmed the IDF was detaining human rights activists participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla.
The boats were reaching southern Israel’s port of Ashdod, the minister said, noting all passengers were safe.
The U.K. Foreign Office said they were in contact with activists’ families and Israeli officials. Australia’s Foreign Ministry said it “stood ready to provide consular assistance to its affected citizens on board.”
The Israeli foreign ministry published images of activists participating in the Global Sumund Flotilla on X, adding that they were on the way to Israeli land ahead of a deportation procedure.
The ministry termed the activists “Hamas-Sumud passengers on their yachts.”
A majority of the 50 boats in the flotilla had not yet been intercepted by Israeli naval forces, the activists said earlier Thursday. A live-stream video on their website shows some ships continuing to sail.
Two people were killed and one was wounded in an Israeli strike on the village of Jarmaq in southern Lebanon, the country’s Health Ministry said.
Organizers of the aid-carrying Global Sumund Flotilla said 19 boats were intercepted on their way to Gaza.
Protests broke out in Italy late on Wednesday following Israel’s interception of a flotilla bound for Gaza.
In Rome, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the city’s main train station in the evening. Authorities temporarily closed access to the station and shut down the nearby metro station as a precaution.
According to the newspaper La Repubblica, a group of protesters marched towards the office of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, accusing her right-wing government of failing to show solidarity with the flotilla activists. Some chanted the government had “blood on its hands.”
In the southern city of Naples, several protesters blocked tracks at the main train station, forcing a halt to rail services, news agency ANSA reported. Demonstrations were also reported in the northern Italian cities of Milan and Turin.
Israeli forces boarded boats with foreign activists carrying aid to Gaza and took them to an Israeli port, disrupting a protest that had become one of most high-profile symbols of opposition to Israel’s blockade of the enclave.
A video from the Israeli foreign ministry verified by Reuters showed the most prominent of the flotilla’s passengers, Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, sitting on a deck surrounded by soldiers.
“Several vessels of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla have been safely stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port,” the Israeli foreign ministry said on X. “Greta and her friends are safe and healthy.”
The Global Sumud Flotilla, which was carrying medicine and food to Gaza, consisted of more than 40 civilian boats carrying about 500 parliamentarians, lawyers and activists.
Hamas has denied any connection to three suspects arrested in Berlin for procuring weapons for potential attacks on Israeli or Jewish targets in the country.
“The allegations that the detainees have ties with Hamas are baseless and aim to harm the movement’s reputation and distort the German people’s sympathy with our Palestinian people,” the group said in a statement.
“Hamas stresses that its policy has always been, and remains, to confine its struggle against the Zionist occupation solely within Palestine,” the statement added.
Here are the latest updates from day 727 of the war:
■ Five rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel, triggering alarms in the city of Ashdod and nearby communities. Four of the rockets were intercepted, and one fell in an open area, the IDF said. No wounded were reported.
■ Italy’s foreign minister said that his Israeli counterpart had assured him the Israeli armed forces would not use violence against activists on board the flotilla of ships sailing towards Gaza.
■ U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday while meeting PM Netanyahu, declaring that any attack on Qatar will be regarded as “a threat to the peace and security of the United States.”
■ German police arrested three men they suspect of preparing a serious act of violence against Jewish targets in Germany for Hamas, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
■ A drone launched toward Israel from Yemen was intercepted, the Israeli army said. No alarms activated.
■ An unnamed Hamas official told the BBC that the group is expected to reject U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war and release the hostages. The official said the deal “serves Israel’s interests” and “ignores those of the Palestinian people.”
■ Israeli fire has killed 51 people in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry said, adding that four of those killed came under fire while in search of humanitarian aid.
■ The International Committee of the Red Cross said that it has been forced to temporarily suspend operations in Gaza City and relocate staff due to escalating hostilities.
Click here for previous updates.
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