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ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n\n Published on 10\/06\/2025 – 16:55 GMT+2\u2022Updated
\n 20:46<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
French leftist MEP\u00a0Rima Hassan has remained in Israeli custody and was awaiting a hearing on Tuesday before an Israeli judge, after being detained the day before alongside seven other people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hassan was part\u00a0of the \u201cFreedom Flotilla\u201d, a group of activists who set off on 3 June from Catania, Italy, to try\u00a0to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza by boat\u00a0but were intercepted by Israel\u2019s authorities about 200 kilometres\u00a0from the coast on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry\u00a0said then that the crew of the Madleen vessel had been\u00a0provided with water and sandwiches but Hassan\u2019s team said that after a brief, filmed, distribution of sandwiches during the arrest, no water or food was provided during the 16-hour journey to the port of Ashdod, which the crew was forced to spend on the ship\u2019s deck until nightfall.<\/p>\n
The 12 Freedom Flotilla members were then\u00a0presented with a document urging\u00a0them to recognise they had entered Israeli territory illegally.\u00a0Signing it meant immediate expulsion, while refusal would result in being brought before a judge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Four of them chose the first option, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, Spaniard Sergio Toribio, and two French nationals, Baptiste Andre and Omar Faiad. <\/p>\n
But the other eight refused to sign the document, arguing\u00a0that the Freedom Flotilla was intercepted in international waters and rejecting the claim that they entered illegally.<\/p>\n
These eight people are now detained awaiting a new hearing before\u00a0an Israeli judge, who could order their expulsion in the coming days.<\/p>\n
Hassan\u2019s parliamentary immunity guarantees her freedom of expression and protects her from legal action stemming from any EU\u00a0member state, but does not apply outside of EU territory.<\/p>\n
The MEP\u2019s team denounced the document presented as \u201ca propaganda operation aimed at legitimising an illegal arrest and detention\u201d and claimed it is \u201ca blatant violation of her parliamentary immunity\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe strongly affirm that their humanitarian mission to Gaza was legal, necessary, and urgent; the arrest violates international law; the detention is illegal and arbitrary,” the statement from Hassan’s team also reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The European Parliament told Euronews on Tuesday\u00a0that its President Roberta Metsola has been in constant contact with the Israeli authorities to ensure the safety and security of Hassan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will remain in round-the-clock contact with all parties until it is resolved safely,” a Parliament spokesperson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Were other MEPs ever detained?<\/p>\n
This is not the\u00a0first time a MEP was detained in a third country. <\/p>\n
In February 2025, three MEPs\u00a0– Isabel Serra (Spain), \u00a0Catarina Martins\u00a0(Portugal), Jussi Saramo (Finland), all from the Left group\u00a0– were detained<\/a>\u00a0and subsequently expelled from El Aai\u00fan, the main city of the disputed territory of\u00a0Western Sahara, where they had gone to carry out a human rights observation mission.<\/p>\n \u201cThe European Parliament will always insist that all its members are kept safe and treated with respect as elected representatives of the people of Europe wherever they are in the world”, the Parliament also said in its statement to Euronews.<\/p>\n Her detention and the Freedom Flotilla\u2019s seizure have become a much-debated political issue in France and in Brussels. <\/p>\n France Unbowed published an\u00a0<\/a>appeal<\/a>\u00a0calling for the immediate release of the passengers and the lifting of the Israeli blockade on Gaza.<\/p>\n Its leader Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon and MEP Manon Aubry also called for urgent intervention from President Macron and European and international bodies, declaring they bear a moral responsibility to defend these activists. A rally they organised in Paris on Monday\u00a0to protest against\u00a0the detention and Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza gathered\u00a0tens of thousands of people,\u00a0according to M\u00e9lenchon.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the European Parliament, The Left, the Socialists and Democrats and the Greens\/European Free Alliance co-signed a statement asking for all the activists to be released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 10\/06\/2025 – 16:55 GMT+2\u2022Updated 20:46 ADVERTISEMENT French leftist MEP\u00a0Rima Hassan has remained in Israeli custody and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[71954,2000,299,36,72146,71877,46255,1815,13130],"class_list":{"0":"post-174369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-civilians","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-gaza-flotilla","13":"tag-greta-thunberg","14":"tag-hunger","15":"tag-israel-hamas-war","16":"tag-the-gaza-strip"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114662072897200725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}