Seven Irish activists on Gaza flotilla detained by Israel released in Greece

The seven Irish citizens who were detained after Israeli forces intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla have been handed over to the Greek authorities, its organisers have said.

The seven were taken “along with hundreds of others”, said Karen Moynihan, head of the Global Sumud’s Irish delegation.

The Global Sumud Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza ​set sail from Barcelona in Spain on April 12th, aiming to try to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

The group said its boats were in international waters off the coast of the Greek island of Crete when Israeli authorities “rammed” and boarded their vessels on Wednesday night.

The Irish citizens who were taken have been named as Catriona Graham, Fiacc O’Brolchain, Robert Murphy, Colm Byrne, Martin Guilfoyle, Michael Fix and John Connellan.

The organisers said two men – Saif Abukeshek and Thiago Ávila – were “taken hostage” by the Israelis after the others were released in Crete.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he would be raising the matter within the European Union.

“I want to condemn the seizure of the flotilla in what appears to be international waters – that’s not acceptable,” he said.

“Israel has to abide by international law and the rule of law.”

Margaret Connolly, sister of President Catherine Connolly, was among the 22 Irish people on the boats but was not detained by Israeli forces.

Speaking to The Irish Times, she said she wanted to condemn the taking of the two men as hostages saying it was “absolutely outrageous” and “very worrying”.

Connolly said she was at the front of the boat on lookout on Wednesday night when a baby bird landed on the boat and went under her blanket and up the leg of her shorts. She said it was a “surreal” moment. While another woman on board was taking photos of the bird, they noticed drones nearby.

Light started coming towards them “very rapidly”. She said “we were warned that this light, if it gets brighter, that’s a ship coming our direction”.

Others on board “knew instinctively it was the Israelis”.

She went downstairs in the vessel to put on longer trousers and a top and to get the medicine bag and the passports of those on board. By the time she was back up, “it was all over.”

“We were 70 miles off the coast of Crete, in Mediterranean waters, international waters, we have no weapons, we’re on our way to open a humanitarian pathway to Gaza, there’s starvation and a siege on, we have done nothing wrong.”

She said her boat took off “like the hammers of hell” to escape as “there was nothing we could do to help our neighbouring boat, which was only 10 metres from us,” and is now safe, in a location she cannot disclose.

She said they didn’t know why the Israeli forces didn’t come on to their boat, adding: “We were lucky because they did not come back for us.”

Connolly later told RTÉ’s Six One news that she had joined the flotilla in her own right.

“I am totally here in my own right; the president knows that. I am here as Dr Margaret Connolly, a mother, a human being and a GP. I am here in my own right for myself and to wake people up that this bloody genocide has to stop. We have to stop normalising violence and war as if it is a computer game.

“It is absolutely insane to allow the US government and the western powers to enact this genocide – ongoing for three years almost, and feel that they can get away with it, acting with impunity everywhere they go they destroy societies. They are out to destroy the people of Palestine.”

[ Seven Irish citizens held by Israel after Gaza aid flotilla intercepted in international watersOpens in new window ]

Rachel McNicholl, the wife of Fiacc O’Brolchain, said she was “completely shocked” when she heard her husband’s ship had been intercepted by Israel.

McNicholl said she has not received any direct communication from her 74-year-old husband since Wednesday afternoon.

“I have been getting updates from the Department of Foreign Affairs. I got a phone call from them yesterday morning saying that they know that Fiacc is one of the people being detained. There were not sure yesterday evening if they were going to be taken to Israel or what.”

However, this morning it was confirmed that the seven detained Irish citizens were to be handed over the Greek authorities rather than taken to Israel.

“This morning I got a call from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the flotilla group that the latest was that they were going to be taken on an Israeli ship and handed over to Greek authorities.”

McNicholl said her husband did not originally intend to travel as far as Gaza, and did not expect to be detained by Israel.

[ Israelis view Gaza flotilla as a publicity stunt rather than reliefOpens in new window ]

“He’s very tough but he is 74. He felt it would be enough of a contribution if he helped with getting the boats ready and upskilling the crew and then he would come home,” she said.

Jamie Goldrick said he was about to start cutting onions on board the Shireen, an independent observer boat accompanying the Global Sumud Flotilla, when he realised something was wrong.

“We got an alert and the group chat that we are all in just started going off. There’s probably 700 different people in that group chat from all the different boats and flotillas,” he says.

The alert referred to Israel’s interception of aid ‌ships bound for Gaza in international waters near Greece, more than 1,000 nautical miles from Gaza, which flotilla organisers on Thursday described as an “escalation of Israel’s impunity”.

“At first, people thought it was the coast guard, and then we noticed a war ship in the distance. Our radio signal jammed and it went really static and then we started hearing pop songs coming through the signal like Blue (Da Ba Dee) by Eiffel 65. So I was down below trying to frantically upload stuff to the cloud.”

Goldrick said: “We heard someone who was purporting to be Israeli say that we were breaking international law. It became clear that boats were going out of communication; you could see boats were being boarded on the CCTV on the starlink.

“It was almost like a game of Pac-Man. The Israelis were picking off the boats one by one and arresting them,” said the documentary film-maker.

Israel’s detention of vessels involved in the Global Sumad Flotilla on Wednesday evening was condemned by European countries.

Both Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez and the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni described the seizure of the vessels as “unlawful” and called for all their nationals to be released by the Israelis.

“It shouldn’t take Irish citizens being kidnapped in Europe to realise how rogue and lawless Israel is,” said Mikey Cullen, a poet and secondary school teacher from Beaumont.

He is travelling on the Giro Lama, one of the 58 vessels on the Global Sumud Flotilla, of which 22 boats have been detained.

“We had more or less ran through certain procedures involving drone attacks and interception early yesterday evening. Within about an hour or two into us doing the drills, word came on the radio that certain boats had been attacked, that there was a naval ship and these little ribs going around,” he said.

“You could kind of see the lasers in the distance; the spotlight on their guns. Initially, I think they were intimidating the boats, so they were going up pointing weapons at them ordering them to turn around and then eventually they did start abducting people.

“This should outrage everyone in the world whether you’re fanatically pro-Palestine or not. Israel’s rogue barbarity and lawlessness on the international stage is putting every single person in the world in danger. It’s set a horrific precedent where huge military powers can do whatever they like.”

Cormac O’Daly, who is a web developer from Ireland based in Vienna, believes that members of the flotilla are still at risk.

“We are now in Greek territorial waters which should give us some kind of safety but it doesn’t when you are dealing with Israel.”

Sailing on the Blue Toys boat with six others including the President Catherine Connolly’s sister Dr Margaret Connolly and PhD student Louise McCormack, O’Daly’s cabin is laden with aid.

“In the boxes in my room right now, we have rice, pasta, flour, sugar, beans, fish … jam, tomato paste, energy biscuits which are high-calorie energy biscuits. Then the medical aid boxes and prosthetics for children that have lost limbs,” he said.

He is a veteran of the flotilla, having taken part in the Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza in 2009.

He describes Israel’s actions on Wednesday night as “absolutely unprecedented”.

He said that usually the Israeli authorities intercept about 150 nautical miles from Gaza as opposed to 1,000.

“It’s a crime and European governments need to do something about this. Israel has no jurisdiction in international waters. For them to attack us off the coast of Crete within international waters, it’s an act of piracy.”

O’Daly said: “Delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza should not be dangerous. At this point, we are scared. They weren’t held accountable last time. Israel has total impunity.”