October 4, 2025<\/a>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\nIn a press release on social media platform X, Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot stated that France \u00a0encourages participation in flotillas\u00a0 aimed at delivering humanitarian aid to organizations in Gaza, ensuring safe transport of these supplies.<\/p>\n
“If We Bugged, They Struck Us”<\/h2>\n
“We were intercepted by a \u00a0large number of military ships\u00a0,” said \u00a0Paolo Romano\u00a0, a regional councilor from Lombardy, Italy, speaking to AFP at Istanbul airport. “All the boats were taken by storm by heavily armed personnel,” he recounted.<\/p>\n
Romano continued, saying, “They put us on our knees, face down. And if we showed any signs of resistance, they struck us. They made fun of us, insulted us, and subjected us to \u00a0psychological\u00a0 and \u00a0physical violence\u00a0.” Upon arrival in Israel, he described their treatment as \u00a0degrading\u00a0 and \u00a0inhumane\u00a0, recalling that the detainees were denied basic necessities such as bottled water.<\/p>\n
“The Worst Experience”<\/h2>\n
“They opened the doors at night and yelled at us wielding weapons to intimidate us,” he added. An Italian journalist, \u00a0Lorenzo d’Agostino\u00a0, who was on the flotilla, described their capture as \u00a0“kidnapping in international waters,”\u00a0 noting they were over 100 km from Gaza.<\/p>\n
Among the flotilla’s personnel were various politicians and activists, including notable figures such as \u00a0Greta Thunberg\u00a0. “We spent two hellish days in prison. We are now free thanks to the international public opinion’s pressure supporting Palestine,” he stated. Demonstrations in support of the Palestinians were also reported in major cities like Rome.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Iylia Balais\u00a0, a 28-year-old Malaysian activist, expressed her sentiments about the incident, stating that the interception was \u00a0“the worst experience”\u00a0 she had ever encountered. “We were handcuffed, some were made to lie on the ground, and we were denied water and medication,” she lamented.<\/p>\n
“I’m Going to Try Again”<\/h2>\n
The activists were transported to Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines charter flight, where they were greeted by family members waving \u00a0Turkish\u00a0 and \u00a0Palestinian flags\u00a0. Chuckling chants of, ”\u00a0Israel Assassin!\u00a0” filled the air as they arrived. Upon landing, Turkish activists were required to undergo medical examinations and appear in court to provide testimonies, which their lawyers noted.<\/p>\n
Turkey has denounced the interception as ”\u00a0an act of terrorism\u00a0” and has initiated an investigation into the matter. In a message on social media, \u00a0Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan\u00a0 commended the activists as “courageous individuals who have given a voice to the conscience of humanity.” He assured that all Turkish nationals would be repatriated. Among the activists, Libyan \u00a0Malik\u00a0 expressed his determination to attempt the journey to Gaza again, stating, “I will regroup my team, organize the supply of medicines and humanitarian aid, find a boat, and I will try again.”<\/p>\n
While the incident has sparked international outrage and calls for solidarity, the activists emphasize the necessity of humanitarian efforts towards Gaza amidst escalating tensions in the region.<\/p>\n
\n
General News – 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Expelled from Israel after the interception of the Global Sumud flotilla off Gaza, 137 activists of 13 nationalities, including 36 Turks, arrived in Istanbul on Saturday. They denounce violence during their arrest by Israeli forces. Four French elected officials remain detained, while Turkey has opened an investigation and qualified the Israeli operation “as a act […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1718,4561,43235,3543,5602,3096,29322,1085,288,1418,5450,13609],"class_list":["post-174566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-activists","tag-animals","tag-flotillas","tag-french","tag-gaza","tag-israel","tag-lawmakers","tag-remain","tag-report","tag-situation","tag-treated","tag-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}