Poland plans assistance for nationals on Gaza aid flotilla after drone attack
Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski has said that the ministry is taking steps to provide the Poles with consular assistance after the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla was struck by drones this week.
The statement came on Thursday, in response to a recent interpellation to the Foreign Ministry submitted by Katarzyna Ueberhan, a member of the country's The Left party, in which she called on Warsaw to ensure the safety of the Polish members of the flotilla as well as protection for "civilians" from Israel-orchestrated "repressions."
"One should keep in mind that regardless of the legal and political issues, the participation in such an undertaking poses a threat to its participants in connection with the attempt to reach the military operation zone," Bartoszewski added.
The statement followed the drone attack on the flotilla of boats carrying nationals from dozens of countries, which occurred overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday en route to the war-torn Gaza Strip. The participants were carrying food and other humanitarian supplies to the enclave, which has begun to suffer from what the international and human rights organisations have long warned about: famine and deaths from starvation amid the Israeli aid blockade. Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg was also among the participants.
Bartoszewski said that amid mounting international pressure, Israel opened the humanitarian aid corridors in Gaza and allowed planes to drop aid into Gaza.
"On top of that, on August 13, 2025, we have joined yet another British initiative of a joint statement on Israeli restrictions against non-government organisations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories," the politician added.
He also said that Warsaw had repeatedly called for the suspension of military actions between Israel and Hamas for the sake of the "full-scale" humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.
Later in the day, Bartoszewski repeated that the ministry had been monitoring the situation and that the meeting with the Israeli ambassador at the ministry on Thursday focused on this subject.
"We have long appealed to Polish nationals to visit neither the Gaza Strip nor Israel," Bartoszewski told a Polsat News private television programme, adding that the crisis team, which had been set up at the ministry, was in permanent contact with Israeli partners
The enclave's humanitarian crisis, which international organisations say is constantly growing, has claimed the lives of over 65,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Furthermore, the aid organisations have long warned that the amount of humanitarian assistance that reaches Gaza is far from enough, blaming Israel for the mass starvation and famine which have unfolded in the Strip. Last week, UN top-investigators called the Israeli war on Gaza a "genocide," pointing to the statements and actions by the country's top officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel denies the accusations, claiming that a sufficient amount of aid crosses into the enclave. (PAP)
yb/ at/ mf/ jos/
