There are 12 Italians stopped by the Israeli army as part of the blitz against the boats of the Sumud Flotilla off the coast of Cyprus. The new “expedition”, made up of 54 boats and with 461 volunteers on board, left on Thursday 14 May from Maramris, Turkey, not far from the island of Rhodes. The IDF naval forces intercepted around 20 boats near Cyprus, arresting around a hundred activists who will be taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod to be interrogated by the Israeli secret services.
Tajani: “We asked for them to be released as soon as possible”
“We have been following the matter since last night with our embassy in Tel Aviv, with our consulate, with the Italian Embassy in Cyprus,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told journalists. “We have already sent our messages, we asked that our fellow citizens be protected and freed as soon as possible, as happened with the episode a few weeks ago”.
The Israeli Navy has begun to intercept the activist mission sailing to the Gaza Strip to challenge Israel’s naval blockade. pic.twitter.com/YXeSwxPDOd
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) May 18, 2026
“The new attack against the Flotilla represents yet another act of piracy in international waters by the Israeli government” was the comment of Democratic Party secretary Elly Schlein. “Another illegal action, in contempt of international law, near the waters of a European country, with new seizures of boats, including two Italian boats, and the illegal arrest of peaceful activists engaged in a humanitarian mission.”
“The Italian government and the European Union must work with every channel for the immediate release of all the kidnapped activists, who must not be taken to Israel. And they must work – continued the dem secretary – also to release all the humanitarian aid needed for the Palestinians, which is not arriving. But let’s remember it once again: words are not enough, if real sanctions do not arrive, the Israeli government will continue to violate international law with an unacceptable sense of impunity”.