Spanish police filmed beating Gaza flotilla activists as Israel jabs back at Madrid
Videos showed police beating and dragging activists as Basque authorities opened an internal investigation and four people were detained.
- On Saturday, Spanish police arrested four Global Sumud Flotilla activists at Bilbao Airport after clashes erupted during their return from Turkey, with footage showing officers striking activists with batons inside the terminal.
- Tensions escalated Wednesday after Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares condemned Israel's treatment of Gaza-bound activists as "monstrous, inhumane, and disgraceful," following an earlier controversial video from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
- The Israel Foreign Ministry seized on the airport footage to demand "an explanation from the Spanish government regarding its treatment of the flotilla anarchists," accusing them of bringing "provocation and chaos everywhere."
- Bildu condemned the "harsh" police response, calling violence against activists engaged in "solidarity" and "defense of human rights" unjustified, and requested Basque Security Minister Bingen Zupiria explain the actions before parliament.
- While the United States previously labeled the group a "pro-Hamas flotilla" and issued sanctions, separate unrest erupted in Madrid on Saturday where thousands demanded Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's resignation, with clashes near the Moncloa Palace injuring seven officers.
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UN Adviser Reacts to Activists’ Arrests in Spain: ‘We Must Resist the Israelisation of Our Societies’
Francesa Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, speaks at a conference, “A Cartography of Genocide: Israel’s Conduct in Gaza,” at the Roma Tre University, in Rome, Italy, Oct. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli The woman who has an official mandate from the United Nations to advise the international body on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appeared to describe Israel as …
Two ETA terrorists convicted of terrorism began the riots recorded last Saturday at Loiu airport in Bilbao in the organized reception for the Spanish activists of the so-called Global Sumud flotilla, linked to Hamas terrorists. They are the terrorists of ETA José Javier Osés Carrasco, known as Jotas, and Itziar Moreno Martínez, both with a criminal record for their membership in the terrorist organization ETA and identified by police sources as …
Outrage in Spain after police beat Gaza flotilla activists
MADRID: Around two thousand protesters took to the streets of the Spanish city of Bilbao on Sunday to condemn the Basque police’s treatment of activists from a Gaza aid flotilla on their return from detention in Israel. When a relative of one of the six returning activists tried to approach them at Bilbao airport on Saturday, a police officer forcefully prevented him from doing so, leading to scuffles between both sides, images from state broadc…
El Periódico
elcorreoweb.esIsrael convenes Spanish business manager after police violence against activists at Bilbao airport
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