AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! We end today’s show with an update on the Global Sumud Flotilla. Massive protests have unfolded worldwide as the Israeli military has captured the final sailing boat on the flotilla, halting efforts by international activists to break Israel’s siege and starvation campaign in Gaza. Israeli forces arrested over 400 flotilla activists from dozens of countries Thursday.

For more, we go to Rome, where we’re joined by Maria Elena Delia, a spokesperson for the Global Sumud Flotilla. Italian students have occupied universities. Italian unions have called for a general strike, with more than 100 marches expected across Italy.

Maria, thanks so much for being with us. Explain what happened in this last hours, when the global activists from more than — close to 50 boats were taken into custody.

MARIA ELENA DELIA: Yeah. Thank you for having me.

What happened in the last hours is that more than 400 activists, journalists, normal people, have been illegally taken in international waters by military, Israeli Navy. So, I repeat: in international waters. And they are now detained in a high-security prison in Israel.

What happened in Italy is that we have been working a lot in trying to making people aware about the fact that if you turn your head on the other side and don’t want to look what has been happening, and still happens, in Gaza, you are basically — you are giving your support to the violation of international law and the violation of human rights for all the people. And in Italy, we have been witnessing something that, in my opinion, is a political miracle, because we had today the launch of a national strike, and we had hundreds of thousands of people who, in a nonviolent, totally nonviolent, way, have been marching in Rome. I am in Rome now, but in Milan, in Florence, in [inaudible] —

AMY GOODMAN: Maria Elena Delia, we’re going to have to leave it there, but I thank you for that update. We’ll continue to update on Monday. Spokesperson for the Global Sumud Flotilla.

That does it for our show. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.