Foreign Minister Finally Acknowledges Third Cohort of Australians Kidnapped by Israel

Eleven Australians kidnapped off the high seas near Cyprus by Israeli forces have now been released after days of deprivation and psychological and physical torture. This is the third cohort of Australians taken hostage and brutalised by Tel Aviv since October 2025. 

Yet, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong only just raised concerns about this monthslong practice on Thursday, and this was due to Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir bragging about the abuse of foreign nationals online.

Israel commenced intercepting more than 50 boats making up a Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) in international waters on Monday, 19 May 2026, with 430-odd foreign nationals, including 11 Australians, being placed on a prison ship to be tortured and mistreated, before being detained at Ktzi’ot prison in the Negev desert, where kidnapped Australians were also brutalised last October.

Foreign minister Penny Wong finally found her tongue, in amongst a chorus of foreign leaders, two days after the hostage-taking and directly after Ben-Gvir posted footage of tortured foreign nationals, to say that “the degrading actions of Israeli authorities toward those detained” are “shocking and unacceptable”. 

But in calling for the release of Australians, the foreign minister failed to mention this it was the second kidnapping in a month.

Ben-Gvir’s 20 May post shows him revelling amongst dozens of detained foreign nationals placed in stress positions with cable-tied hands, along with a woman beaten in the head and dragged away, as the national security minister chuckles. And the word is all detainees were deprived of water for two days. 

But this behaviour is the norm, and federal Labor is well aware that it’s happened twice before, so clearly, Wong’s reaction was prompted due to the embarrassment that the Israeli minister’s bragging caused.

Israel has released the eleven Australians it had kidnapped this week, after it took six Australians hostage and mistreated and tortured them three weeks ago, and another six Australians were held last October, and they were seriously brutalised then. 

But again, Wong has only now summoned the Israeli ambassador for a chat about this, and that was after seven European nations took the lead.

Addressing Israeli piracy

Amongst the more than 400 foreigners illegally taken hostage in international waters, who were all part of the Global Sumud Flotilla bound for Gaza, carrying food and medicine for Palestinians under siege, were Australians Violet Coco, Helen O’Sullivan, Zack Schofield, Surya McEwan, Sam Woripa Watson, Anny Mokotow, Bianca Webb-Pullman, Neve O’Connor, Isla Lamont and Juliet Lamont.

One of the detainees, Sam Woripa Watson, is a Wangerriburrah and Birri Gubba filmmaker and activist, and he’s from a long lineage of First Nations activists known as the Brisbane Blacks.

Some of those Australians detained this week have been taken hostage by Israel on multiple occasions. Last October’s kidnapping of six Australians saw Surya McEwan singled out for extra brutalisation. And whether any of the current cohort was targeted for extra special rough treatment remains unknown, although they were all deprived of water for days.

News broke late on Wednesday that Italy, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Portugal were summoning their Israeli ambassadors and Spain too had called its local representative, to condemn the scenes of brutality against the foreign nationals being detained, while Australia joined the chorus on Thursday morning. And even some US and UK officials called out Ben-Gvir.

However, this was all after nine Global South nations and Madrid condemned the kidnappings as breaches of international law on the actual day they occurred.

Wong said over a three-post thread that Ben-Gvir’s footage was “shocking and unacceptable”, and she condemned “his actions and the degrading actions of Israeli authorities towards those detained”. She added that Australia’s ambassador had reiterated calls for the release of the detained locals, and she’d also “directed DFAT to call in Israel’s Ambassador to Australia to reinforce this message”.

Ben-Gvir’s inconvenient truths

Civilian’s sailing to Gaza to break the goods blockade on the walled-in region began in 2010. Israel imposed the blockade in 2007. This was long before the intensified blockade of the present that commenced in October 2023, when Tel Aviv began an industrial-scale AI-assisted genocide in Gaza, which has involved mass murder, degradation, humiliation and purposeful starvation.

The first global flotilla to attempt to break the siege of Gaza and to provide the Palestinian population with sustenance occurred in 2010. IDF soldiers intercepted it just like they did to the flotilla last Monday. However, Israelis soldiers then shot dead nine of the foreigners in 2010, and another died in a coma later. 

These crimes were never prosecuted but were rather swept under the rug marked “Israeli atrocities absolved”.

The current flotilla that has just been captured is the fifth attempt to break the siege via a fleet of boats, carrying food and medicine, since mid-2025. And GSF operations have been picking up due to the intensity of the ongoing Gaza genocide.

Whenever Australians are taken hostage DFAT states that those kidnapped, brutalised and detained without charge will receive regular consular assistance. And up until Thursday, PM Anthony Albanese and the foreign minister had both remained silent about Australians repeatedly being taken hostage by an allied nation, despite the smorgasbord of international crimes it involves.

And our foreign minister has only spoken out now, alongside those other western nations, because Ben-Gvir had to go and brag about the brutality he was subjecting the people of those nations to, otherwise the hostage taking and brutalisation prior to release back to their own countries scenario would have played out without any mention from the top ministers in this country.

The dwindling mandate of ministers

Sydney Criminal Lawyers turned on the ABC news on Wednesday afternoon to hear the announcer state that the ‘prime minister had reiterated he would not be providing assistance to them’, and for a moment, it appeared that Albanese was addressing the kidnapped Australians. However, the reporter then clarified he was referring to more “ISIS brides”.

But let’s face it, the PM and foreign minister have repeatedly addressed the ISIS-related Australian citizens seeking to return to their country of origin, while they’ve said nothing about the ongoing habit of Israel kidnapping unarmed Australians in international waters, nowhere near Israel, and then harming them, and Anthony and Penny have neither provided them with any special assistance.

The Australian government was aware that Israel kidnapped six Australians in October 2025 and placed them in Ktzi’ot prison and treated them to harsh conditions and some outright violence. Yet, there were no official condemnations then, rather it was treated in a similar way in which situations involving Australians actually committing crimes overseas are addressed and assisted.

Starker still is the fact that only three weeks ago, six more Australians were kidnapped off boats at gunpoint off the coast of Greece, for the commission of no crimes whatsoever, and they were held on a prison boat for 48 hours, and were treated in the exact same manner as the Ben-Gvir post exposed, but there was no condemnation about this either.

Prior to Ben-Gvir releasing footage of himself getting all giddy about the brutalising of pro-Palestinians foreign nationals, there had been no public addressing of 11 kidnapped Australians amongst more than 400 foreign nationals by minister Wong, and just like last month, when the exact same behaviour occurred, there would likely have been no condemnation without the post.

But there was one distinct difference on display during this week’s kidnapping, and that was a joint statement immediately released by Turkiye, Spain, Jordan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, Libya and the Maldives condemning the Israeli forces’ actions as “blatant violations of international law and international humanitarian law”.

Wong didn’t even mention any breaches of international law or crimes, rather all she could muster was to call for the detainee’s release and that there should be “no ill treatment of any detainees and to act in line with international obligations”.

Indeed, these appear to be the only words of our foreign minister can bring herself to say when innocent Australians have been kidnapped, held hostage and are being brutalised by a foreign nation, when that country is the state of Israel.

IMAGE 1 caption: Five Australian detainees post-release in Turkiye: Isla Lamont, Neve O’Connor, Anny Mokotow, Zack Schofield and Dr Bianca Pullman Webb. Photo credit: Luca Lamont