Earlier, the Israeli Foreign Ministry dismissed the flotilla as “a provocation for the sake of provocation” aimed to serve Hamas, divert attention from Hamas’ refusal to disarm, and obstruct progress on President Trump’s peace plan.
Israel’s foreign press department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Dublin, the Department of Foreign Affairs stated it was “actively monitoring” the flotilla, which activists live-streamed on Monday as Israeli vessels intercepted and boarded their ships. Most of the flotilla had departed Sunday from Turkey’s Marmaris port, some after traveling from Italy.
Flotilla activists released a pre-recorded message from Margaret Connolly announcing her detention by Israel.
“If you are watching this video, it means I have been kidnapped from my boat in the flotilla by the Israeli occupying forces and am now being held illegally in an Israeli prison,” she said, holding her Irish passport and wearing a T-shirt with an outline map of Ireland.
“The cause of Palestine is the moral compass of our time. It is what makes us human,” she added. “Palestinians will save our humanity.”
Margaret Connolly’s detention coincided with the start of her sister’s three-day visit to the U.K. as Ireland’s head of state.
During her Buckingham Palace meeting with the king, President Connolly issued an official invitation to the monarch to visit Ireland. King Charles’ late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 2011 became the only reigning British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since its 1922 independence.
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