Gaza flotilla activists who were detained by Israel and later pinned to the ground to the taunts of Israel’s far-right national security minister have arrived in Turkey.
The Israeli foreign ministry confirmed all the activists had been deported. Footage of them arriving in Turkey was shared by the Global Sumud Flotilla on social media on Thursday afternoon.
Fourteen Irish citizens, including Dr Margaret Connolly, sister of President Catherine Connolly, are among the more than 400 people deported from Israel.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee earlier said the 14 Irish people had arrived by bus at Ramon airport in Israel to be flown to Istanbul in Turkey, before flying back to Ireland.
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Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday McEntee said they will be met by Clare Brosnan, Ireland’s Ambassador to Turkey. The Minister also confirmed the Government planned to publish the long-delayed Occupied Territories Bill in the coming weeks.
Referring to reports that two detainees had been hospitalised, she said they were not Irish citizens. However, she said “others have been injured and I will, as soon as I can, provide an update to the House as to whether or not that includes any Irish citizens”.
The Minister added: “We have consistently called for access and the ability to engage directly with them by our teams, and that has been denied of us.
“And I want to utterly condemn these actions, and say that it is not acceptable, whether it’s the Irish Government or any other government, that we have been prevented from engaging and speaking directly to our citizens.
“Let me be very clear, these actions, the illegal detention, the way in which our citizens have been detained, we all saw the footage of direct contact with our citizens, it is completely unacceptable.”
The activists were arrested at a port in southern Israel after the Israeli navy intercepted their protest flotilla in international waters on Monday. Their treatment by police officers, under the direction of Israel’s minister of national security Itamar Ben-Gvir’s direction, drew an international outcry and a rebuke from prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Ben-Gvir and at least one other minister in Netanyahu’s government, transport chief Miri Regev, posted campaign-style videos of themselves visiting the port and lambasting the protesters, attention-grabbing antics ahead of potential early elections in Israel.
A detained Irish activist, Caitríona Graham, is seen at the start of the video standing up and chanting “Free, Free Palestine” just before Ben-Gvir walks past. She is then restrained by soldiers and pushed back down by the head to a kneeling position.
Sligo councillor Declan Bree, the husband of Margaret Connolly, said he had not spoken to his wife since Monday.
Bree, a former TD, told RTÉ radio’s News at One: “I presume that the Israelis have jammed the communications as they normally do.”
He said none of the family members of other Irish detainees were able to contact their loved ones in recent days.
“That would be same for all of the families with loved ones on the flotilla because we had been keeping in contact with each other.”
Bree condemned the actions of Ben-Gvir as “shocking” and ”unacceptable”.
During Leaders’ Questions, Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty and Labour’s Ged Nash said the “decks should be cleared” of all other business next week to allow the OTB to be debated and passed.
McEntee reiterated she would bring the legislation forward “in the coming weeks, irrespective of whether or not we reach a consensus at a European level” and “we will enact this legislation as soon as possible”.
She said she was pushing for a vote “at the next Foreign Affairs Council, which would specifically be on the banning or the suspension of the trade elements of the EU Israel Association Agreement”.
On Wednesday evening TDs voted against legislation seeking to impose sanctions on Israel, by 77 votes to 62.
The Bill, which was tabled by People Before Profit-Solidarity, had proposed to prohibit all trade, investment, financial dealings and state-linked economic activity with Israel.
Flotilla organisers say they aim to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian assistance, something aid bodies say is still in short supply despite a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in place since October 2025 that includes guarantees of increased aid.
The flotilla departed from southern Turkey this week before being intercepted on Wednesday. Past flotillas – including one carrying Swedish activist Greta Thunberg – were also intercepted by Israel, with participants later deported.
In a statement, Israeli rights group Adalah said the estimated 430 activists had been released from prison in southern Israel and would be deported via the Ramon airport near Eilat on the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has written to the president of the European Council calling for a European Union-wide ban on products from Israeli settlements and the suspension of the EU’s Association Agreement with Israel following its “shocking treatment” of the Gaza activists detained at sea.
Martin wrote to António Costa expressing his grave concern at the treatment of EU citizens, including some Irish people, who were illegally detained by the Israel Defense Forces in international waters.
He called for the matter to be on the agenda of the next EU summit in June.
Martin also condemned what he described as the unacceptable behaviour of Ben-Gvir.
In his letter, the Taoiseach said the interception and treatment of those onboard were the latest examples of Israel’s growing disregard for international norms and its failure to meet its obligations under international law.
Martin had written that seven months after a ceasefire was called in Gaza, aid has yet to reach the population in sufficient volumes, and conditions there remain shocking.
He referred to continued expansion of Israeli illegal settlements in the West Bank with settlers inflicting extreme violence against Palestinian communities. It is, he said, a deliberate attempt to undermine the viability of the two-state solution.
He also referred to the introduction of the death penalty in Israel and its incursion into southern Lebanon, and widespread bombing of the country, especially its capital Beirut.
In those circumstances, Martin argued in the letter, the EU cannot continue with a “business as usual” approach to Israel.
To further his call for a ban on illegal settlement goods and the suspension of the EU-Israel agreement, he asked for an urgent discussion among EU leaders at the next meeting of the European Council on June 18th and 19th, when it is due to discuss the situation in the Middle East. - Additional reporting from agencies
