\n<\/p>\n
Earlier, the Israeli Foreign Ministry dismissed the flotilla<\/a> as \u201ca provocation for the sake of provocation\u201d that had set sail \u201cto serve Hamas, to divert attention from Hamas\u2019 refusal to disarm, and to obstruct progress on President Trump\u2019s peace plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s foreign press department didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n In Dublin, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement it was \u201cactively monitoring\u201d what was happening to the flotilla, which activists were live-streaming<\/a> Monday as Israeli vessels intercepted and boarded their ships at sea. Most of the flotilla had departed Sunday from the Turkish port of Marmaris, some after sailing from Italy.<\/p>\n Flotilla activists issued a pre-recorded message from Margaret Connolly in conjunction with their announcement of her detention by Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are watching this video, it means I have been kidnapped from my boat in the flotilla by the Israeli occupying forces and am now being held illegally in an Israeli prison,\u201d she said, holding her Irish passport in her right hand and wearing a T-shirt bearing an outline map of Ireland.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cause of Palestine is the moral compass of our time. It is what makes us human,\u201d she added in the video. \u201cPalestinians will save our humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n Margaret Connolly\u2019s detention at sea coincided with the start of her sister\u2019s three-day visit to the U.K. as Ireland\u2019s head of state.<\/p>\n During her Buckingham Palace meeting with the king, President Connolly issued an official invitation<\/a> to the monarch to visit Ireland. Charles\u2019 late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 2011 became the only reigning British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland<\/a> since its 1922 independence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n