TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Two Florida residents who were detained by Israel during an aid mission to Gaza have come back home.
Dr. Dia’a Daoud of Daytona Beach and Egan Louise Moore of Tampa Bay said they were abducted by Israeli forces in international waters during the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
According to the Freedom Flotilla’s website, it is a grassroots movement that has tried to end the “illegal Israeli blockage of Gaza.” Multiple voyages have been made to the Gaza Strip to help bring food and medications to the civilians, but they were stopped by the Israeli military.
“Without us interfering with this process and then going and helping the Gazan people, the Gazan people are at an imminent threat of complete eradication,” Daoud said.
A release from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said the most recent flotilla of nine boats, which contained 145 people from 30 countries, was “violently abducted” in international waters about 120 nautical miles from the Gazan coast on Oct. 8.
The people on the vessels were said to be elected officials, journalists, and doctors who were trying to bring over 15,000 kilograms of aid in “medicines, respiratory equipment, and nutritional supplies for Gaza’s starving hospitals,” according to the release.
All of the participants on the intercepted voyage have since been released after being detained by Israel.
