Tánaiste Simon Harris TD has raised concerns about the safety of people on board boats trying to reach Gaza.
Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg and Irish campaigner, Karen Moynihan, are amongst the volunteers crewing the flotilla of 39 boats currently heading east across the Mediterranean.
The organisers of the Global Sumud Flotilla say they are a non-violent group trying to “break the Israeli occupation’s illegal siege on Gaza”.
Since setting sail from Barcelona two weeks ago, the campaigners say they have experienced a series of attacks including fires on board some of the vessels.
Simon Harris, along with the foreign ministers of more than a dozen other countries has expressed concern about the security of the Global Sumud Flotilla.
In a joint statement foreign ministers of Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Ireland, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain and Turkey raise serious concerns.
“The Global Sumud Flotilla has informed about its objective of delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and raising awareness about the urgent humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people and the need to stop the war in Gaza.
Both objectives, peace and humanitarian aid delivery, together with the respect of international law, including humanitarian law, are shared by our Governments”, the ministers write in the joint statement.
It continues:
“We therefore call on everyone to refrain from any unlawful or violent act against the Flotilla, to respect international law and international humanitarian law.
We recall that any violation of international law and human rights of the participants in the Flotilla, including attacks against the vessels in international waters or illegal detention, will lead to accountability.”
Israel has accused the Global Sumud Flotilla of having links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, both of which are considered terrorist groups by the European Union.