A government that has created a deliberate famine in Gaza just a few short miles from where Israeli people are continuing their lives, going to work, the gym, the beach, watching the Eurovision. 

For all the time that these men, women and children have been left starving in the 25-mile-long enclave of Gaza, there have been hundreds of trucks full to the brim with food, medical supplies and equipment just waiting on the spot to be let in — Palestinians in Gaza starved to death whilst surrounded on all sides by food and supplies that were prevented by Israel from getting in.  

It is crucial to think about the Global Sumud Flotilla in that context, as an attempt by people from around the world to refuse to accept this continuing reality.

On Thursday night we began to hear the emerging testimonies from the 430 people who were kidnapped from the 2026 Global Sumud Flotilla. 

These people, ordinary people, just like me and probably very like you, from more than 45 different countries, were treated horrifically by people representing and working for the Israeli Government.

Sexual assaults, beatings, stress positions

It is emerging as they make statements to our on-the-ground team that these non-violent humanitarians were terrorised. 

They reported sexual assaults — up to and including rape — by soldiers whilst on the ‘prison ships'. They have been beaten with batons and guns, shot at close range with rubber bullets, resulting in serious injuries, tasered repeatedly, placed in stress positions for hours on a metal boat-deck with their hands cable tied behind their backs, they were kicked in their ribs, heads and faces resulting in broken ribs, broken legs, collar bones and other injuries. 

The ship decks were repeatedly flooded with water whilst they were held face down with their hands tied behind their backs. This is an absolute escalation of the levels of violence used against us on the flotilla I was part of last year for which Israel faced no consequences.

Israel began intercepting the flotilla boats last Sunday night meaning that lots of our people were kept for more than four nights and three days in these conditions. It is clear from the first interviews and images and from our person on the ground now in Turkey that the Irish flotilla members are exhausted and traumatised.  

Each one of these violations is a crime and will be extremely traumatic for the people returning home. I can only hope the public will be gentle with them.  

Palestinians have been living under this regime for decades and have experienced this and more in their hundreds of thousands. This is why we act.   

No consequences for Israel

In less than a year, Israel has kidnapped and abused more than 40 Irish people, including me, and it has faced absolutely no consequences from our Government for these actions. No ambassador has been summoned, no sanctions imposed, we do not see the Occupied Territories Bill passed despite eight years of promises. We have granted licenses for ”dual use” military equipment to be exported to Israel, we have allowed overflights of our territory to the site of the genocide by those committing and supporting the genocide. 

Micheál Martin praised Donald Trump for  ‘doing his bit for peace’ even as Trump armed and supported the Israeli regime’s wildest expansionist desires with absolutely disastrous consequences for people in the West Bank, in south Lebanon and in Iran.  

In 2024 Ireland was Israel’s second biggest trading partner. Not per capita, in actual numbers. A report in The Currency recently revealed €20m worth of dual use exports went to the IDF and Israeli Defence Ministry from Ireland at the height of the Gaza war, approved by the Government. 

Israeli citizens can travel to Ireland at will and will be granted visas for 90 days at a time when Ireland refuses visas over and over again for Palestinians trying to escape the genocide. I recently took part in a poetry event where a poet from Gaza now living in another country was denied a visa to attend and had to present via video link.

This is a person who has spent his life trying to build art and creativity in Gaza, and for whom the genocide is personal, lived reality, who has had family members evaporated in their tent by high tech weaponry and AI systems that Ireland’s economy supports and profits from. It’s no wonder he wasn’t allowed in; we probably couldn’t bear to see ourselves reflected in his face.  

Action by the Global Sumud Flotilla

In the past 15 months the grassroots internationalist movement that has become known as the Global Sumud Flotilla has seen thousands of people from more than 60 different countries get together to take action against the genocide of the Palestinian people. 

In that time, these efforts have resulted in more than 3000 people attempting the Great March to Gaza, which aimed to arrive at the Rafah border through Egypt, the 2025 Global Sumud Flotilla which saw 500 people from 47 countries attempt to break the siege on Gaza by sea, a successful flotilla to Cuba which delivered aid and a message of solidarity to people there, and this 2026 flotilla which initially saw more than 70 boats depart and which faced two separate violent interceptions by Israel. 

Even now there is currently a Global Sumud Land Convoy made up of hundreds of people on its way to Gaza through Libya and North Africa which is bringing ambulances, supplies aid and again a multi-national message of solidarity and defiance of global inaction.  

Irish citizens kidnapped in international waters

There were 18 Irish people on this flotilla. 14 of them were kidnapped in international waters near Cyprus during this particular assault on decency and dignity by the Israelis. 

Another seven were detained and then released in the first attack by Israel which happened in international waters off Crete a fortnight ago.  They were nurses, GPs, tour guides, teachers, students, diving instructors, sailors, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers. They are from Cork, Sligo, Dublin, Waterford, Belfast, Meath, Offaly. 

People who couldn’t put up with watching a live-streamed genocide happening in plain view.  People who have watched all of the world’s so-called authorities including our own Government failing to take any serious action to stop the genocide or to end the 19-year long blockade on Gaza that was illegal from the very first day it was imposed.  

The Irish government, last time, hid their absolute lack of political action and their complicity with this genocide behind the good work of the Irish consular staff on the ground. They even praised themselves for it at length when we had the chance to present to two Oireachtas Joint Committees.   

TDs voted down bill

Worse, last Wednesday, even while the Global Sumud activists were illegally held and while Ben-Gvir was livestreaming himself taunting them, our Government went into the Dáil and voted against sanctioning Israel.

I could not be more ashamed of them. I am extremely proud of our brave flotilla participants and the dozens of Irish people you’ll never hear about, mostly women, who have been working behind the scenes to support them.

In the near future, Irish governments will be laundering their own lack of action and their absolute lack of moral courage during this period of history, by claiming for the Irish state the actions of these brave people who are returning home today. Like they have done with Mary Manning, the Dunnes Stores worker who spent three full years striking before anyone listened.

To the Irish public, please be gentle and care for our flotilla participants. To the Irish Government: Act now.  If you won’t do it for Palestinians or for international law, or for peace, do it for your own egos:  don’t go down in history as the government that allowed Israel to kidnap, brutalise, humiliate and degrade Irish citizens and post the videos on Instagram without taking any single action. 

I’d be mortified to be that government.   

• Sarah Clancy is a poet, a member of the ground crew of the Global Sumud Flotilla and a participant on a previous flotilla