Cork grandfather on hunger strike after arrest on Gaza flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces
Boats, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla aiming to reach Gaza and break Israel's naval blockade, sail off Koufonisi islet, Greece, September 26, 2025. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis
A Cork grandfather is on hunger strike in an Israeli jail after being arrested for his involvement in a flotilla trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Paddy O’Donovan, 61, from Cobh, is among 16 Irish citizens arrested after his boat, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, was intercepted yesterday. All 42 boats in that flotilla have now been intercepted.
His daughters, Robyn and Rebecca O’Donovan, said they have heard their father is on an indefinite hunger strike after being transferred to a prison about 30 miles from Egypt.
Robyn told the on RedFM that information on their father’s status is slow to reach them.
"We are just trying to piece it all together now and figure it out, but so far, we know that they're on an indefinite hunger strike and that they've been transferred to a prison about 30 miles off Egypt, and we're just kind of waiting for more news. But it's just, it's a waiting game, I suppose."
They understand their father is being held in a detention facility in the Negev desert within Israeli territory, about 30 kilometres from the Egyptian border.
“He's going to do everything in his power to make a difference, to try and prove a point. He's so brave,” Robyn said.
“There's nothing that he wouldn't do to help somebody. My heart breaks, but I'm so proud of him. We are all so proud of him.
“[Despite] all the hard times that they've gone through, not once for any second did he think about backing out or coming home. He just wants to finish it out.”
Paddy has been gone for about five weeks, Robyn said. While that has felt “like a lifetime” for the family, it must feel even longer for those still on the boats.
Her sister Rebecca said the family is very worried: “We want our dad home. He is 61.”
She last spoke to him on Tuesday night, just hours before his boat was intercepted.
“He was telling me it was a beautiful, calm night out there. The moon was shining.
“He said it was so peaceful you wouldn't think that there was a war zone a couple hundred miles away.
“They knew the blockade was waiting for them. They knew that the Israelis were going to do something to them.”
Despite her worry, Rebecca said she is “beyond proud” of her father.
“He wants nothing more than to help those children and those women and those poor people over there. He’s so brave.
“And he's taken all his life experience and used it to do something good.”
Meanwhile, the legality of Israel’s actions against the Gaza flotilla is “open to question,” according to a leading maritime security expert.
Professor Ian Speller, Director of the Centre for Military History & Strategic Studies at Maynooth University, said international law “protects the right to freedom of navigation outside territorial waters.”
He told the there are very few exceptions, including piracy, the slave trade, illegal broadcasting and stateless ships.
“However, a state can legally stop a ship if it is enforcing a lawful blockade,” he said. “The key issue here might be whether or not the Israeli blockade can be considered lawful.”
Prof Speller, author of numerous works on naval warfare and maritime strategy, said the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflict at Sea (1994) sets out the conditions for a lawful blockade.
He said it must be formally declared, effectively enforced, impartially applied, and not extended to neutral ports.
“It does not allow for the interdiction of humanitarian aid to civilians,” he said. “Attempts to block the delivery of such aid could be considered contrary to customary international law, but note that Israel declares that it is willing for such aid to be delivered but that this must occur through routes and agencies that it controls. The matter, therefore, is open to some interpretation.”
Prof Speller added that the San Remo Manual mandates: “if the civilian population of a blockaded territory is inadequately provided with food then the blockading party must provide free passage for foodstuffs etc”.
But he noted: “Israel claims that it already provides for the free passage of food.”
The manual also prohibits blockades if:
- “it has the sole purpose of starving the civilian population or denying it other objects essential for its survival”;
- "the damage to the civilian population is, or may be expected to be, excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the blockade.”
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