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LAST UPDATE | 13 Jun
PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT TD Paul Murphy and several others have been detained while trying to cross Egypt to reach the start point of the March for Gaza, which has seen thousands of people travel to Egypt to hold demonstrations at its border with Palestine.
Before they can even start the march, activists are facing significant challenges getting across Egypt, where authorities have detained hundreds of people who arrived for the march in recent days.
People Before Profit has confirmed that TD Paul Murphy and others travelling alongside have been detained by Egyptian authorities.
“Paul and the rest of the group have now been forced onto buses and we believe they are being taken to Cairo for deportation. Paul’s phone has been taken so we are no longer in contact with him,” a party spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said they are “closely monitoring the situation” alongside the Irish Embassy in Egypt.
“Embassy officials are engaging with the relevant local authorities and are in contact with EU and other partners regarding the situation. The Department is in contact with a number of citizens and is providing advice and guidance.
“As set out in our travel advice, the vicinity of the Rafah border crossing is particularly dangerous at the moment and the border crossing is currently closed,” the spokesperson said.
We have had our passports confiscated and are being detained. It seems Egyptian authorities have decided to crack down on the #GreatMarchToGaza. We are refusing to board the deportation bus. pic.twitter.com/RlOBAlQFFh
— Paul Murphy 🇵🇸 (@paulmurphy_TD) June 13, 2025
Another People Before Profit member, Kellie McConnell, was also detained earlier this afternoon.
“We are on an armed bus. No windows. They will take us to the airport,” McConnell said in a message.
People Before Profit councillor Jess Spear, who is Murphy’s partner, said that she has spoken to him this evening and confirmed that he is okay. She said he claims “considerable force and violence” took place during his detention.
“I am concerned that Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris has made no public statement on this matter,” she added, appealing on the Fine Gael leader to intervene.
Participants who have arrived in Cairo are travelling by car and bus to the Egyptian city of Al Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula, where they will begin a 48km march to the Egyptian side of the Gaza border near Rafah.
Several dozen Irish activists are among the thousands who have travelled to Egypt for the March.
Mark Barry is a Social Democrats councillor from Greystones. He spoke to The Journal from a car travelling east, around 180km outside of Cairo.
He said he is aware of around 47 Irish delegates having flown to Egypt, of whom at least 35 successfully got through the airport in Cairo: “We got into Cairo yesterday. It was quite difficult to get through the airport for some people.”
“Today, we’re trying to make our way across the country, but we’re hearing stories of people being detained, being searched and being stopped from Cairo and people being turned back on the motorway on the way across the country,” he said.
This afternoon, a spokesperson for the Social Democrats said Barry was “turned around at a checkpoint in Ismailia but was not detained”.
Also making her way across Egypt is Fionna Saintraint, a PhD researcher at Dublin City University. She told The Journal: “There’s a lot of stress but we’re all very determined to try to get to the border.”
“We flew in yesterday and we met up with some of the Irish delegation here and they’re an amazing group of people. They’re from all walks of life, all age groups, from all over the country, and the thing we have in common is that we want to show solidarity,” she said.
“The main thing that we’re all here for is to show solidarity with the Palestinian people. We’re all tired of watching people die and this is the best way we know how to do something about it.”
She said that Egyptian authorities have taken passports away from some of the activists they have detained and have held people on roadsides.
Murphy arrived in Cairo last night and spoke to The Journal earlier today before he was detained.
He said that this morning that it was “still not entirely clear whether we’ll be prevented from marching by the Egyptian authorities or not”.
Murphy said that the focus of the movement is on “lifting the unbelievable starvation of the Palestinian people” which has “half a million people on the verge of starvation” as a result of Israel blocking Gaza’s access to food, water and medical supplies.
Murphy said there are “thousands of us here from 57 countries and about 50 people from Ireland” who are “all united in horror at the genocide being inflicted on the Palestinians”.
“We want to do whatever we can to pressure Israel to stop and also to put pressure on our own governments to stop their complicity and to act instead of just giving words.”
A spokesperson for the march said yesterday that more than 200 participants had been detained at Cairo airport or questioned at hotels in the city.
The spokesperson, Saif Abukeshek, said that plainclothes officers entered hotels in Cairo with lists of names, questioned activists, and in some cases confiscated phones and searched through personal belongings.
Some were released while others were arrested, detained for hours or deported.
Israel has pressured Egyptian authorities to prevent participants from reaching the border with Gaza.
Participants in the Global March to Gaza are aiming to arrive at the border on Sunday and camp there before returning to Cairo by next Thursday.
Organisers say their goal is “absolutely not” to try to forcibly enter Gaza but to try to negotiate the opening of the Rafah terminal with Egyptian authorities to deliver humanitarian aid – but Egypt has been creating hurdles for the movement.
The world's leaders don't and won't act to end the starvation and slaughter of the Palestinian people.
— Global March To Gaza (@globalmarchgaza) June 13, 2025
So people from around the world are coming together to march from #Cairo to #Rafah, starting today, to break Israel's blockade of Gaza and to #FreePalestine! https://t.co/FqJWvhn0Sk
Fionna Saintraint said that participants feel the action is “really important, especially in the wake of what happened at the flotilla”.
“We understand that by putting ourselves on the line, we get attention, we keep it in the news, and especially with the blackout now, the Israelis having targeted the communication infrastructure of the Gaza Strip, we think it’s really important to keep reminding people that people are dying.
“We want to march peacefully. We’re not representing anyone, we’re not trying to make any partisan statements.
“Our statement is that our governments need to ramp up the pressure to let aid into Gaza, and the colonialism in Gaza needs to stop – Israel needs to pull out and stop bombing people.
Mark Barry gave his account too of why he felt it was important to participate in the march.
“We’ve all stood by and watched for the last 18 months what has been happening in Gaza and the genocide of the Gazan and the Palestinian people, and the prevention of humanitarian aid for the last number of weeks from entering into the Gaza Strip is inhumane,” he said.
“From my own personal point of view, I have a lot of constituents who are voicing their disgust and anger towards this while we’ve been protesting and running many demonstrations back at home in Ireland.
“This opportunity came up, and it was a way of representing and motivating and amplifying the message from Wicklow and Ireland that we want our government to do more, we want governments from all around the world to do more, and we need the people back at home now to row in behind this march and to amplify what’s happening.”
With reporting from Jane Matthews
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