Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares assured this Thursday that the 44 Spaniards traveling aboard the solidarity flotilla with Gaza, detained by Israel in waters near Cyprus earlier this week, are being “already transferred to an airport, along with the rest of the activists.” “Everything points to them being deported via Turkey to our 14:00. It is not officially confirmed, but that is what is being discussed among the consuls,” Albares stated this morning on television.
The Foreign Affairs official estimated the number of nationals detained at 44, although he warns that this number is the result of a count by his ministry and is not yet the official figure. “We are on a humanitarian, peaceful mission, which only wants humanitarian aid to be able to enter Gaza,” Albares emphasized. “Where is phase two of the peace plan?” he questioned.
This happens after videos were released on Wednesday showing the Israeli National Security Minister, the ultra Itamar Ben Gvir, humiliating members of the flotilla upon their arrival that same day in Israel. They are seen kneeling and handcuffed. Consequently, the Foreign Affairs official announced that he had summoned, for the second time in 48 hours, the Chargé d’Affaires of Israel in Madrid, Dana Rerlich, to protest and demand the immediate release of the detainees.
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“No Spanish citizen is to be touched,” Albares warned Israel this Thursday. “We will defend them against any slander linking them to terrorist groups: they are peaceful citizens.”