{"id":337269,"date":"2026-05-19T17:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=337269"},"modified":"2026-05-19T17:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:31:17","slug":"sister-of-fearful-irish-president-detained-in-israel-after-gaza-aid-flotilla-intercepted-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/sister-of-fearful-irish-president-detained-in-israel-after-gaza-aid-flotilla-intercepted-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Sister of \u2018fearful\u2019 Irish president detained in Israel after Gaza aid flotilla intercepted | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dr Margaret Connolly, the sister of Irish President Catherine\u00a0Connolly, is amongst at the least six Irish residents aboard an aid flotilla which have been detained by Israel.<\/p>\n

The Global Sumud Flotilla said that 10 boats in a 60-vessel flotilla were intercepted in international waters and boarded by Israeli forces on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Organisers said the interception happened roughly 70 nautical miles off Cyprus, with at the least six of 15 Irish participants amongst those detained.<\/p>\n

The Global Sumud Flotilla said it has lost contact with the intercepted boats.<\/p>\n

President Connolly has said the incident is \u2018quite upsetting\u2019, and while very pleased with her sister, she is \u2018very fearful about her\u2019.<\/p>\n

The flotilla has posted videos from\u00a0Dr Connolly\u00a0and five others, which appear to have been recorded upfront of their detention.<\/p>\n

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Dr Connolly went with the aim of delivering aid and medical supplies to Gazans (Picture: Margaret Connolly)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In her video,\u00a0Dr Connolly\u00a0said: \u2018In the event you are watching this video, it means I even have been kidnapped from my boat within the flotilla by the Israeli occupying forces, and I\u2019m now being held illegally in an Israeli prison.\u2019<\/p>\n

She added: \u2018That is the most important one to this point, and now we sail for Gaza to open a humanitarian pathway to bring much-needed aid and medical supplies to the people of Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u2018I feel utterly compelled \u2013 as a mother, a physician, and as a human being \u2013 to assist in this flotilla. I want to appeal to the Irish government to enact the Occupied Territories Bill without fail.<\/p>\n

\u2018The explanation for Palestine is the moral compass of our time, it’s what makes us human. Their humanity is our humanity.\u2019<\/p>\n

Karen Moynihan, Irish lead for the Global Sumud Flotilla, told the Press Association that six Irish residents had been \u2018kidnapped\u2019.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201915 Irish people \u2013 together with tons of of other people \u2013 completely legally sailing on a humanitarian mission, have been intercepted and abused again by Israel.<\/p>\n

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The sister of Ireland\u2019s President is being held by Israeli forces (Picture: Global Sumud Flotilla)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Currently, over the past seven months, 33 Irish residents have been kidnapped by Israel, and our Government is considering whether or not they\u2019re even going to sanction Israel \u2013 it is totally horrific, and the Government must be called out fully on its complicity in genocide, and there is no such thing as a other solution to put it.\u2019<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the flotilla said there is no such thing as a legal basis for the arrest of participants attempting to deliver aid.<\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs said officials \u2018are actively monitoring the situation regarding the Global Sumud Flotilla\u2019 and are engaging with the relevant authorities.<\/p>\n

The Israeli Foreign Ministry, on X, described the flotilla as a \u2018provocation and a seek for publicity\u2019, because it claimed there was no aid on board.<\/p>\n

They went on guilty Hamas: \u2018The aim of this provocation is to serve Hamas, to divert attention from Hamas\u2019s refusal to disarm, and to obstruct progress on President Trump\u2019s peace plan.\u2019<\/p>\n

Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Seek for man who threatened to behead \u2018dirty Jews\u2019 in London<\/span><\/p>\n

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Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Paloma Faith leads celebs calling for Keir Starmer to apologise for UK\u2019s \u2018past crimes\u2019 in Palestine<\/span><\/p>\n

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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to an internet browser that supports HTML5 video Dr Margaret Connolly, the sister of Irish President Catherine\u00a0Connolly, is amongst at the least six Irish residents aboard an aid flotilla which have been detained by Israel. The Global Sumud Flotilla said that 10 boats in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":337270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[5617,15827,34878,9640,31260,19463,11420,395,431,1118,813,6300],"class_list":["post-337269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-aid","tag-detained","tag-flotilla","tag-gaza","tag-intercepted","tag-irish","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-president","tag-sister","tag-world","tag-worried"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337272,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337269\/revisions\/337272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}