Melike Pala
09 October 2025•Update: 09 October 2025
BRUSSELS
A European Parliament lawmaker voiced concern Thursday about the detention of a colleague, Melissa Camara, by Israel after the Freedom Flotilla Coalition was attacked.
"This is about our colleague, our very highly esteemed colleague, Melissa Camara. She was on the Freedom Flotilla, and she was detained by the Israeli authorities," said Greens/European Free Alliance co-chair Bas Eickhout ahead of a vote session in the plenary sitting in Strasbourg.
Eickhout noted that Camara may have been transferred to a maximum-security prison, though it has not yet been confirmed.
"We are concerned about a colleague, about her safety, about her health, about her position, and we should all be," he said, urging European Parliament President Roberta Metsola to do her utmost to ensure Camara's release and well-being.
Eickhout's address was frequently interrupted by right-wing MEPs.
Metsola said in response that the parliament is maintaining contact with Israeli authorities regarding the situation.
"We are in constant contact with Israeli authorities and the groups concerned to ensure that all members of the European Parliament are treated with dignity," she said, adding that although Camara's participation was not part of an official parliament action, "our DG SAFE (Directorate-General for Security) and crisis cell have been activated, and we will keep doing what we can."
Israel attacked ships of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition's "Thousand Madleens to Gaza" convoy early Wednesday in international waters, roughly 120 nautical miles (222 kilometers) from the enclave.
The convoy set sail after Israeli naval forces attacked and seized more than 40 boats last week that were part of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla and detained over 450 activists on board. Most of them have been deported.
Israel, as the occupying power, has also previously attacked Gaza-bound ships, seized their cargo and deported the activists on board.
It has maintained a blockade on Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for nearly 18 years and tightened the siege in March, when it closed border crossings and blocked food and medicine deliveries, pushing the enclave into famine.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable.
Negotiations to end the war, according to a 20-point plan unveiled by US President Donald Trump, are underway in Egypt.
