The Ertzaintza has arrested four people accused of serious disobedience, resistance, and assault on an authority agent during the incidents that occurred around 14:00 at Loiu airport (Bizkaia) following the arrival of some members of the Global Sumud Flotilla. The incident took place when the six members of the Basque delegation of the Flotilla were posing for the media after landing from Turkey. One of the people waiting for them at the terminal tried to approach the group when an ertzaina prevented it. This caused a commotion in the terminal that ended with charges against the Flotilla activists and those waiting for them.
The Basque Department of Security has reported that the Ertzaintza’s Internal Affairs Headquarters has launched an investigation to verify whether the agents’ actions comply with current instructions. In a message posted on the social network X, EH Bildu denounced the “harsh action” of the Ertzaintza inside Bilbao airport. “The violence exerted against an action that symbolizes solidarity and the defense of human rights has no justification. It is unacceptable to beat and arrest in Euskal Herria people who have been kidnapped by Israel,” reads Bildu’s statement on the social network. In the same vein, Podemos Secretary General Ione Belarra spoke out, denouncing the incident on X: “What is this? Beating those who risked their lives in the Flotilla. This is intolerable,” she wrote.
EH Bildu has announced that it will request the urgent appearance of the Basque Security Minister, Bingen Zupiria, in the Basque Parliament to explain the police action and has called for the “immediate release” of the four detainees and demanded “an end to hostility against solidarity actions.”
Since 11:00, colleagues of the six activists from the Basque delegation had been at the Loiu airport facilities to welcome them. Their return was initially scheduled for this Friday, but they delayed the trip due to the hospitalization of two activists for injuries suffered after being captured by Israeli forces while heading to the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid. According to the Global Sumud Euskal Herria delegation, the two activists were hospitalized due to “injuries resulting from the violence suffered during the kidnapping by Zionist repression forces.”
Around 13:30 this Saturday, about twenty Spanish activists who participated in the Global Sumud Flotilla arrived in Barcelona after Israel deported them on three chartered planes to Istanbul on Thursday after being intercepted in international waters while heading to the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid. At El Prat airport, a group of about 200 people awaited them, including the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, the Comuns MEP Jaume Asens, and the deputy Aina Vidal, with whom they shouted “Free free Palestine” —Free Palestine— and “Israel is not a country, it is an occupation,” among other slogans.
More than 430 activists traveled on this expedition, 44 of whom are Spanish citizens, including the former mayor of Montcada i Reixac (Barcelona), Laura Campos, who was greeted —among others— by her father Josep Maria Campos, the first democratically elected mayor of the municipality. The Flotilla was made up of 54 vessels that again tried to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. Last Monday, it was intercepted by the Israeli navy in an operation in international waters 250 nautical miles from Gaza.
Mi Hoa Lee is one of the activists who recalled her experience at the arrivals terminal of Barcelona airport. “We were intercepted, boarded, tortured, kidnapped, humiliated, and deported. The escalation of violence was abysmal. They took me to a military prison ship, fully equipped to torture us,” she recounted. Lee explained how they took her passport: “They put me in the tunnel of terror and torture. There, four soldiers of the Israeli occupation forces beat me. They also electrocuted me with a taser gun. They told us they were going to kill us. A colleague was left in a room with a dog biting her. There was sexual violence. Sound bomb shots that have destroyed feet.”
She was not the only one to describe a series of assaults of all kinds and denounce the inaction of the European Union. Ariadna Masmitjà, from the IAC union, criticized: “In our sea, ships with weapons sail and nothing happens, while our flotilla arrives, a genocidal state intercepts us, kidnaps us, leaves the ships adrift with the complicity of the rest of the state, and violently assaults us.”
This is how the #Flotilla activists arrived in #Barcelona #Palestinian pic.twitter.com/jBsNQtP8t6
— Alfonso Congostrina (@alfcongostrina) May 23, 2026
The Global Sumud Flotilla denounced on Friday that among its members detained by Israeli authorities, there have been at least 15 sexual assaults and dozens of injuries after remaining in Israeli custody following the interception of the vessels in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach the Gaza coast.
“At least 15 cases of sexual assaults, including rapes. Close-range rubber bullet shots. Dozens of people with broken bones,” the initiative denounced in a social media message, emphasizing that now it is time to increase pressure on Israeli authorities for the treatment they give to the Israeli population.
Global Sumud Flotilla stated that while the world “focuses on the suffering of the participants,” these cases of violence “are just a small glimpse of the brutality that Israel imposes daily on Palestinian hostages.”
“Do not let your guard down. Condemnation statements are not enough. People around the world must seize this moment to exert the necessary pressure to end this colonial violence,” the humanitarian organization stressed, insisting on increasing pressure on the political class and continuing “boycott and divestment tactics.”
The organization is already thinking about the next steps to take and has announced legal actions in Turkey, Poland, Morocco, Italy, Indonesia, Spain, and France.
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