By Cara McHugh & Christopher Conway
The Global Sumud Flotilla has confirmed that Dr Margaret Connolly from Sligo has been intercepted from her boat, Blue Toys, this morning.
She was sailing to Gaza to deliver aid and has been on this journey for over three weeks.
On the Éire Flotilla page, a video was posted of Connolly as she says, “if you are watching this video, it means I have been kidnapped from my boat in the flotilla by the Israeli occupied Forces”.
“I am so proud to be taking part in this flotilla, it is the largest to date”.
According to the Flotilla tracker page, her boat was intercepted at 264.6 nautical miles away from the red line of Gaza. She was taken with other Irish citizens on her boat, including Louise McCormack of Westmeath.
Irish organisers said at least 15 Irish citizens were participating in the flotilla, with six now believed to have been detained.
Two weeks ago, the boat she was sailing on retreated back to the eastern coast of Crete in Greece after her fellow flotilla participants in boats parallel to hers were intercepted by the Israeli Defence forces.
Speaking to the Sligo Weekender when her boat set sail again for Gaza twelve days ago, Dr Connolly re-iterated her reasons for participating in this mission, “I call on Mícheál Martin, to not use our airspace, or Shannon, to call for the banning of Israel from the United Nations, all ties with Israel – all education, all medical, all business, all economic – an apartheid state must be broken”.
