Minister Oana Țoiu, direct attack on the Israeli Minister of National Security: Unacceptable behavior

The public hostility and humiliation towards the members of the “gaza flotilla” shown by the Israeli minister Ben Gvir are “unacceptable”, says the interim foreign minister, Oana Ţoiu, writes Agerpres.

“The voluntary abusive treatment of the flotilla team and the protesters, many European citizens, is against the right to human dignity. We demand the immediate and safe release of the members of the flotilla, according to international standards, while respecting their right to consular assistance and fundamental human dignity. We hope that this incident will be treated with maximum responsibility and that this humiliating behavior will not happen again,” Oana Ţoiu wrote, on Wednesday, in a post on the X platform.

Israel's national security minister, far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, visited on Wednesday some 430 Gaza flotilla activists brought to the port of Ashdod after their boats were intercepted by the Israeli navy, and later released a video in which members of the flotilla appear before him on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs as he mocks them, Reuters, AFP and EFE.

“Welcome to Israel!” says the said minister in the video, smiling while waving an Israeli flag and in front of him the flotilla activists are forced to kneel, with their hands cuffed behind their backs and their heads on the ground, and the Israeli anthem is heard from a loudspeaker.

“This is how we welcome the supporters of terrorism,” says the same minister in a message on the X social network, where he shared the images. He then reaffirms the position of the Israeli government according to which the mission intended to transport humanitarian aid for the population of the Gaza Strip and which tried to break the maritime blockade imposed by Israel on the Palestinian enclave in 2007 would amount to supporting the Islamist group Hamas.

European states that have citizens among the members of the flotilla intercepted by Israel protested the way they were treated by the Israeli minister.

Thus, Spain, which has 44 citizens among the activists detained by Israel, summoned the charge d'affaires of the Israeli Embassy in Madrid and sent him a protest against the “monstrous, undignified and inhumane” treatment applied by Israel to the “Gaza flotilla” activists.