{"id":17841,"date":"2026-05-20T17:01:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/at-least-87-gaza-aid-flotilla-activists-abducted-by-israel-on-hunger-strike-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:01:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:01:03","slug":"at-least-87-gaza-aid-flotilla-activists-abducted-by-israel-on-hunger-strike-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/at-least-87-gaza-aid-flotilla-activists-abducted-by-israel-on-hunger-strike-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"At least 87 Gaza aid flotilla activists abducted by Israel on hunger strike – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Global outrage after Ben-Gvir posts video taunting abducted flotilla activists as they knelt with their hands bound.<\/em>
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Several countries, including Italy, France, the Netherlands and Canada, have summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their capitals to express their \u201cindignation\u201d over Israel\u2019s treatment of the abducted Gaza flotilla activists.
The condemnation came on Wednesday, shortly after Israel\u2019s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir published a video on social media, in which he was seen taunting the activists as they knelt on the floor with their hands tied.
\u201cThe images of Israeli Minister Ben Gvir are unacceptable. It is unacceptable that these protesters, including many Italian citizens, are subjected to this treatment that violates their human dignity,\u201d Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement on X.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also denounced Ben-Gvir\u2019s actions as \u201cunacceptable\u201d, calling for the release of French citizens \u201cas soon as possible\u201d.
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand called the incident \u201cdeeply troubling\u201d, adding that Ottawa will summon the Israeli ambassador over the incident.
\u201cThis is a matter \u2060we take very, very seriously. \u2060It\u2019s a matter of humane treatment of civilians, and I \u2060can assure you that we \u2060are acting with \u2060absolute urgency,\u201d she told reporters.
The Netherlands will also summon Israel\u2019s ambassador, as Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said Ben-Gvir\u2019s \u201ctreatment of detainees violates basic human dignity\u201d.<\/p>\n

South Korean citizens were also among those abducted by Israeli naval forces, \u2060President Lee Jae Myung said on Wednesday, calling Israel\u2019s actions \u201cway out of line\u201d.
\u201cWhat is the legal basis? Is it Israeli territorial waters?\u201d Lee questioned, adding: \u201cIs that Israeli land? If there is conflict, can they seize and detain third-country vessels?\u201d
Portugal\u2019s Foreign Ministry also strongly condemned the \u201cintolerable behavior\u201d of Ben-Gvir.
Spain\u2019s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares called the treatment of the activists \u201cmonstrous\u201d, while his Irish counterpart Helen McEntee said she was \u201cshocked\u201d by the footage, calling for the activists\u2019 immediate release.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Global Sumud Flotilla said on X that at least 87 people abducted by Israeli forces from an aid flotilla bound for Gaza began a hunger strike \u201cin protest of their illegal abduction and in solidarity with the over 9,500 Palestinian hostages held in Israeli dungeons\u201d.
Late on Tuesday evening, Israeli forces \u201ckidnapped\u201d six people on board the Lina al-Nabulsi boat, organisers said.
The boat was the last in a group of more than 50 vessels that left Turkiye\u2019s port city of Marmaris last week to sail towards Gaza, with the goal of breaking Israel\u2019s blockade of the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed late on Tuesday that its forces were taking hundreds of flotilla participants to Israel.
\u201cAnother PR flotilla has come to an end. All 430 activists have been transferred to Israeli vessels and are making their way to Israel, where they will be able to meet with their consular representatives,\u201d a ministry spokesperson said, calling the effort \u201cnothing more than a PR stunt\u201d.
Israeli forces began overtaking the vessels<\/a> in international waters off the coast of Cyprus on Monday, organisers said, where they raided boats, allegedly fired rubber bullets<\/a> and abducted participants.
The prisoners included nine Indonesian citizens, a spokesperson for Indonesia\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. Indonesia called for the immediate release of all vessels and said that \u201cevery diplomatic channel and consular measure will continue to be fully utilised\u201d.
About 15 Irish citizens, including Margaret Connolly, a doctor and the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly, were among those being held.
Countries including Turkiye, Spain, Jordan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, Libya, and the Maldives denounced the Israeli interceptions as \u201cblatant violations of international law and international humanitarian law\u201d.<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Global outrage after Ben-Gvir posts video taunting abducted flotilla activists as they knelt with their hands bound.SaveShareSeveral countries, including Italy, France, the Netherlands and Canada, have summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their capitals to express their \u201cindignation\u201d over Israel\u2019s treatment of the abducted Gaza flotilla activists.The condemnation came on Wednesday, shortly after Israel\u2019s far-right National […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}