Italy’s foreign minister has said he still doesn’t know the whereabouts of two Italian parliamentarians reportedly aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Antonio Tajani, who is also deputy prime minister, was quoted by Italy’s Rai News as saying it also wasn’t yet known if they had been taken off the flotilla and on to Israeli vessels.
Tajani said on Rai1’s Porta e Porta program:
The foreign ministry’s crisis unit has been following the flotilla every day, day after day. We’ve always spoken with the spokespeople, not with the parliamentarians, who work on their own.
We still don’t know where they are, we don’t know if they’ve already disembarked from the Flotilla ships to board Israeli vessels.
We’ll know everything by late morning.
Australian filmmaker Juliet Lamont – onboard the flotilla to Gaza – says the group is about 50 nautical miles from the shores of the territory.
On social media, Lamont described a military boat coming up close to the boat she’s on, Wahoo, which she says tried to manoeuvre them towards Egypt. Wahoo managed to “out manoeuvre” the military boat, she said.
In a following video, Lamont says there are still around 30 boats in the flotilla on course to Gaza, with about 30 military vessels surrounding and kettling the flotilla.
A lot of our comrades on the flotilla have been intercepted and boarded by zodiacs [boats], we’re still in formation ... We’re feeling really positive, we’re feeling really steadfast in our resolve to get the much needed aid there, [and] that we are on the right side of history.
We are feeling like we’re going to get there, when the sun rises we will be with the people of Gaza.