ISRAEL LAST night announced that it would release hundreds of foreign activists, including at least five Irish citizens, who were detained after they were seized from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla during a deadly raid by Israeli commandos.
Flight arrangements for the more than 600 activists, some of whom Israel had threatened to put on trial, are expected to be made from today.
At least seven Irish passport-holders were brought to Israel after commandos stormed the six-ship flotilla in the early hours of Monday morning. The boats, which were carrying aid supplies to Gaza in defiance of the Israeli blockade, were well outside the exclusion zone when the raid occurred. At least nine people died in the operation, which has prompted international outrage and a call by the UN Security Council for a “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent” investigation. Most of the dead were Turkish nationals.
The detained Irish citizens were finally allowed consular access yesterday. They told Irish diplomats that they had been treated harshly by the Israelis but none required hospital treatment.
One of those detained, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign member Shane Dillon, was expected to fly back to Ireland last night. Another, Isam Bin Ali, a naturalised Irish citizen originally from Libya, is due to return today.
Five other Irish passport holders, including Dr Fintan Lane, Fiachra Ó Luain, Al Mahdi Alharati, and an Irish-American activist named Ken O’Keeffe, were still being detained last night in the southern Israeli city of Be’er Sheba.
Several Irish activists, including Nobel peace laureate Mairéad Corrigan-Maguire and former UN official Denis Halliday, are on board the Irish-owned vessel MV Rachel Corrie which is en route to Gaza.
The Irish Government has called on Israel to allow the boat, currently in the eastern Mediterranean, safe passage to Gaza to discharge its cargo of humanitarian supplies. Egypt said yesterday it had opened its Rafah border crossing to Gaza “for an unlimited time” to allow Palestinians and aid to cross into the territory.
Israel’s security cabinet said it regretted the loss of life but insisted the actions constituted an act of defence against “violent provocation”. It also said it would continue its blockade. “The cabinet determines that setting limitations on boat traffic to Gaza, ruled by the Hamas terror group, is a clear act of self-defence,” a statement said.
In the Dáil yesterday, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the Government was extremely unhappy about the attack on the flotilla.
“These actions, which resulted in at least nine people being killed and approximately 30 being injured, were completely disproportionate and unacceptable,” he said. “It is clear that the incident took place in international waters. The legal basis for the action of the Israelis is at the very least open to serious question.”
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said he took issue with Israeli attempts to denigrate those taking part in the flotilla.
“We know the Irish activists involved to be sincere, committed people, with deep humanitarian convictions and concerns, who were committed to breaking the blockade of Gaza but in a peaceful, non-violent way,” Mr Martin said. “It is compounding one injustice with another to try and brand such people as somehow terrorist fellow-travellers.”