Spain’s Foreign Ministry on June 9 summoned Israel’s top diplomat in Madrid to protest the interception of the Freedom Flotilla in international waters, according to local media reports. The ministry told Spanish daily El Pais and broadcaster Cadena Ser it had summoned Dan Poraz, charge d’affaires at the Israeli Embassy in Madrid, after Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip. Among the passengers was Spanish activist Sergio Toribio.
“The ministry is in contact with the Spanish national involved, his family and Israel’s Foreign Ministry, and is providing consular assistance,” it told El Pais.
Poraz is the highest-ranking Israeli diplomat in Spain after Tel Aviv recalled its ambassador amid Madrid’s criticism of the occupation state’s military assault on Gaza and recognition of Palestinian statehood.
It was the second time in three weeks that the Israeli envoy had been summoned.
On May 21, the Foreign Ministry protested the Israeli occupation army’s gunfire targeting an international diplomatic delegation in the occupied West Bank, which included a staff member from the Spanish Consulate General in Jerusalem.
Earlier, Israeli soldiers kidnapped 12 unarmed activists on board the Madleen, including one journalist, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an international NGO, which organised the mission, said.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition sent the 18-metre Madleen from Catania, Sicily, Italy, to break the blockade in Gaza and deliver aid.
A total of 12 people are on board, including 11 activists and one journalist.
Among them are Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, French-Palestinian Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan, Yasemin Acar from Germany, Baptiste Andre, Pascal Maurieras, Yanis Mhamdi and Reva Viard from France, Thiago Avila from Brazil, Suayb Ordu from Turkiye, Sergio Toribio from Spain, Marco van Rennes from the Netherlands and Omar Faiad, a journalist with Al Jazeera Mubasher, also from France.
The ship is carrying urgently needed supplies for the people of Gaza, including baby formula, flour, rice, nappies, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics, according to its organisers.
