{"id":89617,"date":"2026-10-18T01:14:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T01:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/89617"},"modified":"2026-10-18T01:14:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T01:14:29","slug":"italy-names-senior-israelis-katz-in-probe-over-gaza-flotilla-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/89617","title":{"rendered":"Italy names senior Israelis, Katz in probe over Gaza flotilla activists"},"content":{"rendered":"


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ROME: Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz and senior military, police \u200band prison officials have been placed under investigation in Italy over the treatment of Gaza flotilla \u200cactivists, Italian prosecutors said on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The move expands an investigation that was previously focused on Israel\u2019s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.<\/p>\n

The case concerns suspected torture, kidnapping, personal injury, robbery and damage when Israeli forces intercepted small fleets of \u200bboats headed towards Gaza in 2025 and 2026, the Rome prosecutors\u2019 office said in a \u200bstatement.<\/p>\n

Investigators opened the probe after complaints from 50 Italian citizens who were detained \u2060by Israeli authorities following two Global Sumud Flotilla missions in September to October 2025 and April \u200bto May 2026.<\/p>\n

Katz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ben-Gvir in June dismissed news \u200bthat he was under investigation, saying he would \u201ccontinue to stand proudly alongside our fighters\u201d.<\/p>\n

DEATH THREATS AND BEATINGS ALLEGED<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Prosecutors said activists detained after the first mission had reported beatings, injuries, death threats, insults and accusations of terrorism.<\/p>\n

Activists involved in the \u200bsecond mission reported even harsher treatment, including beatings in the dark, the use of tasers and \u200brubber bullets, the statement said.<\/p>\n

Washington Post condemns brutal attack by Israeli settlers on US photographer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Investigators had identified various individuals forming the military and police chains of command involved in \u200cthe \u2060operations, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Besides Katz and Ben-Gvir, prosecutors named 12 senior Israeli military, police and prison officials as suspects, including military chief Eyal Zamir.<\/p>\n

Zamir also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said they had sent Israel a request for judicial assistance in June, seeking information needed to reconstruct \u200bevents and establish individual \u200bresponsibility. They did not \u2060say whether Israeli authorities had responded.<\/p>\n

The prosecutors said they had also held talks at the European Union\u2019s judicial cooperation agency Eurojust because similar investigations into \u200bthe two flotilla missions were under way in other unnamed European countries.<\/p>\n

Under \u200bItalian law, crimes \u2060committed abroad against Italian citizens can be prosecuted in Rome.<\/p>\n

Being placed under investigation in Italy does not imply guilt and does not automatically lead to a trial. However, if the probe determines that charges are \u2060warranted, \u200bprosecutors could lodge a formal request for trial.<\/p>\n

Flotilla organisers say \u200bthey aimed to break Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian assistance. Israel says its naval blockade on Gaza is lawful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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ROME: Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz and senior military, police \u200band prison officials have been placed under investigation in Italy over the treatment of Gaza flotilla \u200cactivists, Italian prosecutors said on Friday. The move expands an investigation that was previously focused on Israel\u2019s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir. The case concerns suspected torture, kidnapping, personal injury, robbery and damage…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":16,"label":"Pakistan"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-content\/uploads\/Flotila-1024x555.jpg",1024,555,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"frkhokhar@gmail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/author\/frkhokhargmail-com"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":16,"name":"Pakistan","slug":"pakistan","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":16,"taxonomy":"category","description":"All about Pakistan","parent":0,"count":8139,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":16,"category_count":8139,"category_description":"All about Pakistan","cat_name":"Pakistan","category_nicename":"pakistan","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89619,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89617\/revisions\/89619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}