Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Wednesday that the Italian embassy and consulate in Tel Aviv have been closely monitoring since early morning the Israeli navy’s blockade of a new flotilla bound for Gaza.
“About ten Italians have been detained. They will be provided with all necessary consular assistance, along with a request to the Israeli government to ensure respect for individual rights until the moment of expulsion,” Tajani said on the US social media company X.
“The Foreign Ministry’s crisis unit (Farnesina) is also at work,” he added.
The Israeli navy attacked all nine ships of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC)’s Thousand Madleens to Gaza early Wednesday in international waters, roughly 120 nautical miles (222 kilometres) from the enclave, according to the humanitarian initiative.
The flotilla ships were carrying aid worth over $110,000 in medicines, respiratory equipment and nutritional supplies for Gaza’s hospitals.
Around 100 people were said to be on board the convoy to challenge the Israeli siege on Gaza.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port and are expected to be deported “promptly.”
The FFC, established in 2010, has launched dozens of missions aimed at delivering aid and drawing global attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Israel-besieged Gaza Strip.
The latest convoy set sail after Israeli naval forces attacked and seized more than 40 boats sailing to Gaza last week to challenge the Israeli blockade and detained more than 450 activists on board.
Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for nearly 18 years and further tightened the siege in March when it closed border crossings and blocked food and medicine deliveries, pushing the enclave into famine.
Since October 2023, Israeli bombardments have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable.
Multiple rights experts, scholars and a UN inquiry say it amounts to genocide despite Israel’s categorisation of its actions as self-defence after the 2023 Hamas attack.
