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A diplomatic firestorm has swept across Europe this week after Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir published shocking footage of detained Gaza-bound activists, prompting three key European Union countries to formally call for EU-level sanctions against the senior Israeli official.

The incident centers on the latest Global Sumud Flotilla, a convoy of roughly 50 vessels carrying international activists that set out from Turkey last week in an effort to break Israel’s long-running air, land and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla at sea, detaining all on board and transferring them to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod to await deportation.

On Wednesday, Ben Gvir shared a video of the detained activists on his public social media accounts, captioned “Welcome to Israel”. The footage, which shows Ben Gvir waving an Israeli flag while heckling the bound detainees, has drawn widespread international condemnation. In the video, dozens of activists are forced to kneel with their foreheads pressed to the ground and their hands bound behind their backs.

By Thursday, Italy, Ireland and Spain had all joined together to push for formal punitive measures from the EU against Ben Gvir, with other European countries also registering sharp condemnation of the incident.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced Thursday on the social platform X that he had requested sanctions against the minister, saying the interception of activists in international waters and their subsequent “harassment and humiliation” violated the most fundamental standards of human rights. Tajani’s statement followed a remark one day earlier from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who called the activists’ treatment “intolerable” and demanded a formal public apology from the Israeli government.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also took to X on Wednesday to condemn the footage, saying the images of Ben Gvir humiliating international activists who support Gaza were completely unacceptable. “We will not tolerate anyone mistreating our citizens,” Sanchez added, noting that Madrid had already implemented a national entry ban on Ben Gvir back in September. For the EU, he added, sanctions against the minister are “a matter of urgency” for the European leadership in Brussels.

In Ireland, a confidential letter from Prime Minister Micheal Martin to European Council President Antonio Costa was leaked to AFP Thursday by an anonymous government source, revealing Martin’s call for “further action” from the EU over the incident. In the letter dated Wednesday, Martin condemned what he called the “shocking treatment of EU citizens” and the “unacceptable behaviour” by Ben Gvir, and called for the incident to be added to the agenda for the next European Council meeting scheduled for June.

Martin went further than his Italian and Spanish counterparts, stating that the bloc should consider sweeping measures against Israel: “At the very least, this must include the banning of products from Israeli settlements and the suspension of parts if not all of the EU’s Association Agreement with Israel.” The 2000 association agreement, which forms the legal framework for EU-Israel cooperation, includes a binding clause that requires both parties to uphold fundamental human rights standards.

Beyond the EU, the United Kingdom also joined the international outcry Thursday, announcing it had summoned Israel’s most senior diplomatic representative in London over what UK officials called “the inflammatory video”.

This incident marks the latest escalation in tensions between Europe and Israel over the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, following months of growing friction over Israeli military operations and restrictions on aid access to the besieged enclave. This latest flotilla attempt was the second such action in as many months, after Israeli forces intercepted a smaller activist convoy last May.

Fourteen years after one of the deadliest aviation disasters in French history, Paris’s appellate court has delivered a landmark ruling holding both Air France and aircraft manufacturer Airbus criminally responsible for the 2009 crash of Flight AF447 that claimed 228 lives.

On June 1, 2009, the Airbus A330 operated by Air France was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when a catastrophic sequence of failures unfolded over the mid-Atlantic. During a storm, ice crystals blocked the plane’s pitot tubes—small instruments critical for measuring airspeed. The malfunction triggered cockpit alarms and automatically disengaged the autopilot system. Confused by incorrect speed readings, the flight crew mistakenly put the aircraft into a steep climb that induced an unrecoverable stall, sending the jet plummeting into the ocean. There were no survivors among the 216 passengers and 12 crew members, with victims hailing from more than 30 countries, including 72 French nationals and 58 Brazilians.

The case wound through France’s legal system for more than a decade, after a lower court acquitted both companies of involuntary manslaughter charges in 2023. That initial verdict sparked widespread outrage from families of the victims, who spent years pushing for accountability. Thursday’s appellate ruling overturned the lower court’s decision, finding the two companies solely and fully liable for the tragedy, and ordering each to pay the maximum possible fine for corporate involuntary manslaughter: 225,000 euros, or approximately $261,000.

While the financial penalties are widely viewed as symbolic, the conviction carries severe reputational consequences for both Air France, France’s national flag carrier, and Airbus, Europe’s largest aerospace manufacturer. Throughout the legal proceedings, both firms had denied criminal wrongdoing, framing the crash as a case of pilot error. In arguments during the eight-week appeal trial held between September and December 2024, lead prosecutor Rodolphe Juy-Birmann delivered a scathing rebuke of the companies’ conduct in the years following the disaster. “Nothing has come of it — not a single word of sincere comfort,” he said, dismissing the companies’ aggressive legal defense as “indecency.”

Lawyers representing victim families argued that both entities had prior knowledge of potential pitot tube failure risks on the A330 model, but failed to take appropriate corrective action. The court’s ruling backed those claims, faulting Airbus for underestimating the severity of known sensor issues and failing to clearly communicate the risks to operating flight crews. For its part, Air France was found negligent for failing to develop and deliver specialized pilot training to handle emergencies caused by pitot tube icing, a shortcoming that left crew unprepared when the crisis unfolded. In court statements during the trial, Airbus counsel Christophe Cail reiterated the company’s commitment to a “zero accident” safety standard, while Air France representative Pascal Weil admitted the carrier had opted not to implement high-altitude emergency training for this scenario, saying “we sincerely believed it was unnecessary” at the time.

Both companies have not yet announced whether they will challenge the appellate ruling in further legal proceedings. For the families of the 228 victims, the conviction marks a long-awaited turning point in their 15-year fight for official recognition of the corporate negligence that led to the disaster.