French MEP Rima Hassan detained in Israel following ‘illegal entry’

Published on 10/06/2025 – 16:55 GMT+2•Updated
17:03

French leftist MEP Rima Hassan has remained in Israeli custody and was awaiting a hearing on Tuesday before an Israeli judge, after being detained the day before alongside seven other people. 

Hassan was part of the “Freedom Flotilla”, a group of activists who set off on 3 June from Catania, Italy, to try to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza by boat but were intercepted by Israel’s authorities about 200 kilometres from the coast on Sunday evening.

The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry said then that the crew of the Madleen vessel had been provided with water and sandwiches but Hassan’s team said that after a brief, filmed, distribution of sandwiches during the arrest, no water or food was provided during the 16-hour journey to the port of Ashdod, which the crew was forced to spend on the ship’s deck until nightfall.

The 12 Freedom Flotilla members were then presented with a document urging them to recognise they had entered Israeli territory illegally. Signing it meant immediate expulsion, while refusal would result in being brought before a judge. 

Four of them chose the first option, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, Spaniard Sergio Toribio, and two French nationals, Baptiste Andre and Omar Faiad.

But the other eight refused to sign the document, arguing that the Freedom Flotilla was intercepted in international waters and rejecting the claim that they entered illegally.

These eight people are now detained awaiting a new hearing before an Israeli judge, who could order their expulsion in the coming days.

Hassan’s parliamentary immunity guarantees her freedom of expression and protects her from legal action stemming from any EU member state, but does not apply outside of EU territory.

The MEP’s team denounced the document presented as “a propaganda operation aimed at legitimising an illegal arrest and detention” and claimed it is “a blatant violation of her parliamentary immunity”. 

“We strongly affirm that their humanitarian mission to Gaza was legal, necessary, and urgent; the arrest violates international law; the detention is illegal and arbitrary,” the statement from Hassan’s team also reads. 

The European Parliament told Euronews on Tuesday that its President Roberta Metsola has been in constant contact with the Israeli authorities to ensure the safety and security of Hassan.

“We will remain in round-the-clock contact with all parties until it is resolved safely,” a Parliament spokesperson said. 

Were other MEPs ever detained?

This is not the first time a MEP was detained in a third country.

In February 2025, three MEPs – Isabel Serra (Spain),  Catarina Martins (Portugal), Jussi Saramo (Finland), all from the Left group – were detained and subsequently expelled from El Aaiún, the main city of the disputed territory of Western Sahara, where they had gone to carry out a human rights observation mission.

“The European Parliament will always insist that all its members are kept safe and treated with respect as elected representatives of the people of Europe wherever they are in the world”, the Parliament also said in its statement to Euronews.

Her detention and the Freedom Flotilla’s seizure have become a much-debated political issue in France and in Brussels.

France Unbowed published an appeal calling for the immediate release of the passengers and the lifting of the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

Its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and MEP Manon Aubry also called for urgent intervention from President Macron and European and international bodies, declaring they bear a moral responsibility to defend these activists. A rally they organised in Paris on Monday to protest against the detention and Israel’s actions in Gaza gathered tens of thousands of people, according to Mélenchon. 

In the European Parliament, The Left, the Socialists and Democrats and the Greens/European Free Alliance co-signed a statement asking for all the activists to be released.