{"id":28494,"date":"2026-05-23T16:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T16:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/28494\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T16:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T16:42:16","slug":"four-held-after-clashes-at-spain-airport-as-gaza-activists-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/28494\/","title":{"rendered":"Four held after clashes at Spain airport as Gaza activists return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police detained four people at Bilbao airport in northern Spain on Saturday following clashes that broke out after activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla returned home, officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The incident occurred as supporters gathered in the arrivals hall to welcome six campaigners as they arrived on a flight from Turkey after having been detained by Israeli forces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When a relative of one of the activists tried to approach them, a police officer forcefully prevented him from doing so, leading to scuffles between both sides, public broadcaster TVE reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Images broadcast by the station showed police striking people with batons at the airport and pinning others to the ground while being jeered by onlookers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Four people were arrested for serious disobedience, resisting arrest and assaulting law enforcement officers, the Basque regional police force, the Ertzaintza, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Following what happened at the airport, the Ertzaintza internal affairs division has launched an investigation to determine whether the officers&#8217; conduct complied with procedures,&#8221; it added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Hundreds of activists from countries around the world were detained in Israel after they were intercepted at sea on Monday while attempting to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The group included 44 Spanish nationals, according to Spain&#8217;s foreign ministry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Around 20 other activists from the flotilla landed at Barcelona airport on Saturday, where they were welcomed by supporters, including Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">ds\/jj<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police detained four people at Bilbao airport in northern Spain on Saturday following clashes that broke out after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8628,14486,17],"class_list":["post-28494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-activists","tag-bilbao-airport","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}