Yolan Nell

Video näyttää monia maailmanlaajuisia aktiivisia, jotka pysyvät paikallaan, ja heidän käsiänsä ylöspäin. Itamar Ben-Gavir kertoo heiltä israelilaisen israelilaisen israelilaisen israelilaisen.

The Italian prime minister called the video unacceptable and said demonstrators, including many Italian citizens, were being treated in a way that violates human dignity. And in an unusual step, the Israeli foreign minister joined condemnation of his cabinet colleague. Addressing him on X, Gideon Saar wrote, No, you are not the face of Israel.

This is a departure from past protocol, where the Israeli Navy intercepted these boats in this flotilla bound for Gaza, deep in international waters, far from the Gaza coast, about 600 nautical miles away, or 1,000 kilometers, actually close to the Greek island of Crete. The Israeli foreign ministry is saying on X that 175 activists from more than 20 boats are now dead.

making their way peacefully to Israel. It's not clear what happens to the other vessels, because we understand there are 58 vessels in this flotilla. They set sail, some of them from Spain two weeks ago, others joined from France and also from Italy, and there are activists on board with all different nationalities. The global Samud flotilla is calling this an act of piracy by Israel. It says it jammed communications, abducted civilians and set a lawless precedent in international waters.

Israeli military has been saying that it enforces the naval blockade of Gaza and insists that that is legal. The Israeli foreign ministry is the one that is really commenting here though and is accusing the activists who are on this flotilla of being illegal.

Ja Jelan, tämä ei ole ensimmäistä kertaa, että jotain tällaista on tapahtunut viime vuosina.

No, so actually the Global Smooth flotilla itself had a flotilla of boats back in October that were setting sail for Gaza, trying to break the blockade. And that was at a time before the ceasefire came into force, a time of very high tension. That got a lot of media focus. At that point, the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was on board. This time...

There has been sort of less focus on this flotilla, but it is an extremely large one. And they are making accusations against Israel, saying they're deporting people, having brought them against their will to Israel. And it does flag up lots of international law issues that the defense Israel has, it seems to say, basically using counterterrorism laws to justify this.