New Delhi: Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s decision to release videos taunting detained flotilla activists who tried to take aid to Gaza by breaching Israel’s blockade has triggered backlash globally.Among those who responded critically is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who demanded an apology from Israel over its treatment of Italian activists on the flotilla. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a much-publicised visit to Italy. He has not commented on the situation or the video.However, the broader diplomatic fallout is likely to have been such that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to also have jumped on the criticism train.Netanyahu said that although Israel has every right to stop “provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters,” the way Ben-Gvir dealt with the activists was “not in line with Israel’s values and norms.” Israel has carried out a genocide in Gaza in the last two years that has killed upwards of 73,000 people and shut off essential food and aid supply to its people.Ben-Gvir released videos Wednesday showing him walking among some of the approximately 430 detainees of the Global Sumud Flotilla. In one, activists with their hands tied behind their backs are kneeling, their heads touching the floor inside what appears to be a makeshift detention area and on the deck of a ship.ככה אנחנו מקבלים את תומכי הטרורWelcome to Israel 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/7Hf8cAg7fC— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) May 20, 2026“Welcome to Israel, we are the landlords,” Ben-Gvir is heard saying, waving a large Israeli flag. One handcuffed activist shouts “Free Palestine” as Ben-Gvir walks by and is immediately pushed to the ground by security personnel.In another video, Ben-Gvir says the activists “came here all full of pride like big heroes. Look at them now,” while appealing to Netanyahu to grant him permission to imprison them.“I say to Prime Minister Netanyahu, give them to me for a long, long time, give them to us for the terrorist prisons,” Ben-Gvir said.Netanyahu who has claimed to have given instructions that the activists be deported “as soon as possible” is not the only domestic critic.Ben-Gvir also drew the ire of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who chastised his fellow minister on X, saying “you knowingly caused harm to our State in this disgraceful display.”“No, you are not the face of Israel,” Saar wrote.Ben-Gvir, meanwhile, shot back at Saar in the Israeli parliament, accusing him of “bowing to the terrorists” and that any Israeli apology to the activists would send a message of “weakness,” “submission” and “surrender.”Israel is humiliating activistsAn Israel-based legal advocacy group, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, or Adalah, accused Israeli authorities of “employing a criminal policy of abuse and humiliation against activists.”Adalah’s statement said this followed similar patterns of ill-treatment by Israeli authorities against activists in previous flotilla missions “for which Israel faced zero accountability.”Adalah lawyer Suhad Bishara told The Associated Press a group of 11 lawyers who visited the detainees is aware of at least two activists who were hospitalized after being shot with rubber bullets “for no reason, without any justification.” Bishara said the activists will be brought before a judge Thursday who will decide on when their deportation will begin.Flotilla spokesperson Rania Batrice said Ben-Gvir posts such videos because the world has not held Israel to account.“If they’re doing that to Europeans and Americans and people from South Africa and all over the world, imagine what they’re doing to the Palestinian people,” Batrice told the Associated Press in an online interview.Batrice urged governments to step up their response. “Strongly worded letters are not what we need right now. We need more action.”British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the video “violates the most basic standards of respect and dignity” in how people should be treated and demanded an explanation from Israeli authorities.Italy condemned the detained activists’ treatment as a violation of human dignity and called Ben-Gvir’s videos “unacceptable.” It also summoned Israel’s ambassador in Rome to protest the treatment of Italian detainees and demand their immediate release.However, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories has noted that “words are not enough” and that “Italy must stop opposing the suspension of the EU-Israel Agreement.”Presidente Meloni,bene condannare Ben Gvir per l’umiliazione dei membri della Flotilla (un trattamento di lusso rispetto a quanto inferto ai palestinesi nelle carceri israeliane).Ma le parole non bastano: l’Italia smetta di opporsi alla sospensione dell’Accordo UE-Israele. https://t.co/IBT0z1ZrOl— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) May 20, 2026Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said she’s directed her officials to summon the Israeli ambassador to Ottawa.Both Turkey and Greece condemned Israel’s treatment of the activists. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the behaviour “openly demonstrated to the world the violent and barbaric mindset” of Israel’s government. The Greek Foreign Ministry called Ben-Gvir’s actions “unacceptable and entirely condemnable” and said it had lodged a formal protest.Palestine’s Hamas called out Ben-Gvir for the “scenes of abuse and humiliation” of the activists, saying they show Israel’s “moral decadence and sadism.”Israel intercepts all flotilla boats, land convoy waits at LibyaIsraeli forces on Tuesday boarded the last of the flotilla boats that tried to challenge the blockade — the latest effort to highlight the grim conditions for nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza. Flotilla organisers said Israeli soldiers fired on five boats during the interdictions, causing some damage.Israel has maintained a sea blockade of Gaza since Hamas took control of the territory in 2007.Egypt, which has the only border crossing with Gaza not controlled by Israel, has also greatly restricted movement in and out.The Global Sumud Land Convoy which departed on May 15 from Tripoli arrived late on May 16 at the site near Sirte, where it is currently camped, the Anadolu Ajansi has reported.Nikhita Naidu, one of 200 participants who are participating in the Land Convoy said in a statement that while “the movement had been in communication with Libyan authorities for months, receiving permission and assurances of safe passage…. a full military force awaits at the Sirte crossing, and negotiations with the Red Crescent have frozen while performing its role of mediating between the convoy and Libyan authorities”.According to Naid, “The Foreign Minister of East Libya first stated that Libyan members of the Convoy would be allowed passage, but now states that no member of the Convoy will be allowed through East Libya” creating an impediment in the Convoy’s journey.The land convoy that set off from Egypt has managed to deliver 3000 tonnes of much needed humanitarian aid to Rafah, Naidu has noted.