{"id":108452,"date":"2025-10-08T09:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/108452\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T09:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:18:08","slug":"five-irish-citizens-among-those-detained-by-israel-on-gaza-bound-flotilla-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/108452\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Irish citizens among those detained by Israel on Gaza-bound flotilla \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five Irish citizens including author Naoise Dolan<\/a> and Independent TD Barry Heneghan<\/a> have been detained by Israel <\/a>when their flotilla of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip<\/a> was intercepted, organisers have said.<\/p>\n

They had been part of the Thousand Madleens flotilla, a group of nine boats that had been about 120 nautical miles from Gaza before it was intercepted.<\/p>\n

It had been set to arrive at the embattled enclave on Thursday. <\/p>\n

It was travelling behind the previous Global Sumud Flotilla that was intercepted last week.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOur plan A was always to deliver the aid, but we knew this could happen, and we accepted it as a calculated risk,\u201d Ms Dolan, the author of Exciting Times and The Happy Couple, said in a voice note sent before her interception.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t take stupid risks, we don\u2019t take unnecessary risks, but we do take risks that we see as required in order to challenge Israel\u2019s illegal blockade and defend Palestinian self-determination.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other Irish citizens on board the intercepted boats were named by organisers as Fionn Macarthur, Veronica O\u2019Keane and Mutaz Jadaan, a dual Irish-Jordanian citizen.<\/p>\n

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) is an international network of pro-Palestinian activist groups that organises civilian maritime missions aimed at breaking Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the enclave.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Ms Dolan<\/a> said she was on board a vessel named the Milad when it was intercepted by Israeli forces in the eastern Mediterranean at about 4.30am. <\/p>\n

\u201cHer family and friends are monitoring the situation closely and her legal team has already mobilised. There are no communications with the boat or flotilla members at the moment,\u201d the spokesman said. <\/p>\n

The flotilla\u2019s vessels and passengers were safe, had been transferred to an Israeli port and were expected to be deported promptly, Israel\u2019s foreign ministry said in a statement on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother futile attempt to breach the legal naval blockade and enter a combat zone ended in nothing,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n

The incident was the second such event in recent days, after Israel had intercepted about 40 vessels and detained more than 450 activists<\/a> in an aid convoy, the Global Sumud Flotilla, that was also attempting to deliver supplies to Gaza.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I\u2019m prepared for what might happen\u2019: novelist Naoise Dolan approaches Gaza on next flotillaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The FFC said Israeli forces \u201chijacked the humanitarian fleet\u201d, adding that the \u201cships were illegally intercepted … Participants \u2013 humanitarians, doctors and journalists from across the world \u2013 have been taken against their will and are being held in unknown conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israeli military has no legal jurisdiction over international waters,\u201d it said. \u201cOur flotilla poses no harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ships carried aid worth more than $110,000 (\u20ac94,500) in medicines, respiratory equipment and nutritional supplies intended for Gaza\u2019s starving hospitals, it added on its Instagram account.<\/p>\n

Gaza authorities say about 67,000 people have been killed and the Palestinian enclave devastated by Israel\u2019s assault since the October 7th, 2023 attack by Hamas.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0More than 10% of Gaza\u2019s population killed or injured: the cost of two years of warOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken to Gaza as hostages in the Hamas attack. \u2013 Additional reporting: Reuters <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five Irish citizens including author Naoise Dolan and Independent TD Barry Heneghan have been detained by Israel when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[4005,9,10,18,13,14,3761,6,19,17,6220,3857,11,12,15,16,27311,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-108452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-barry-heneghan","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-gaza-strip","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel-defence-forces","tag-israel-hamas-conflict","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-naoise-dolan","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}