Gaza Flotilla: RSF condemns the Israeli forces’ illegal arrest of more than 20 journalists

At around 6 p.m. on 1 October, Israeli naval forces intercepted the first ship of the "Global Sumud Flotilla" humanitarian convoy en route to Gaza to break the Israeli blockade of the Strip. This illegal Israeli military operation in international waters marked the beginning of a series of interceptions at sea. The latest occurred in the territorial waters of Gaza, where a ship was reportedly stopped about 15 kilometres off the coast at the end of the day on 2 October.

According to RSF, a total of around 20 international journalists were on board to cover the civilian mission - which involved 42 ships - including journalists from the Spanish media outlets Telesur, a television channel, and El País, a daily newspaper; the Qatari news channel Al-Jazeera; the Italian public broadcaster RAI, the French communist daily L'Humanité, and the Turkish public broadcaster TRT.

Since the first arrests on the evening of 1 October, the various newsrooms have had no news of their journalists. "Émilien Urbach made a final attempt to contact us at 3:06 a.m. [on the night of 1 to 2 October] via the ship's tracker, and then nothing," a L'Humanitéeditor told RSF. Like the other media professionals arrested by Israeli forces, the journalist is believed to be held at the port of Ashdod, halfway between the city of Tel Aviv in Israel and the Gaza Strip, where all those on board the Global Sumud Flotilla ships were transferred.

On 8 June, the Israeli authorities illegally arrestedtwo journalists, Omar Faiadof the Qatari channel Al-Jazeeraand Yanis Mhamdi of the French news website Blast, aboard the Madleen flotilla. Released on bail, Omar Faiad was held for more than 24 hoursand Yanis Mhamdi for eight days.