At Rubio summit, Sa’ar says Israel on ‘front line’ against ‘alliance’ between far-left and terror groups

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warns of a “growing operational alliance” between “leftist activism” and “Islamist terrorist organizations,” speaking overnight at a ministerial summit in Washington hosted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Ministers from some 60 countries attended the conference on countering “the resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism.”

“Terror groups have an operational alliance today with radical leftist elements in Western democracies, in Europe, in Latin America, in Africa and beyond,” Sa’ar charges in a readout from his office.

To support his claim, Sa’ar points to Hamas documents captured by the IDF and revealed by the Foreign Ministry in late 2025 that purportedly show Hamas’s “direct involvement” in the Global Sumud Flotilla, an activist mission that sought to challenge Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Rather than provide humanitarian assistance, Sa’ar says, the flotilla’s goal was “to breach a legal naval blockade, and to serve the interests of terror groups, mostly Hamas.”

While presenting pictures of Hamas-affiliated individuals alongside activists from the flotilla, Sa’ar explains how the documents drew a connection between Hamas’s foreign arm, the Palestinian Conference for Palestinians and the flotilla movement.

בדברי בכנס שרי החוץ בוושינגטון על הטרור הפוליטי חשפתי את הקשרים בין פעילי המשטים מהשמאל הרדיקלי לבין חמאס וארגוני טרור אחרים.

In my remarks at the Foreign Ministers’ Conference in Washington on political terrorism, I exposed the links between activists involved in the flotillas… pic.twitter.com/W2w0GUvFvB

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) July 16, 2026

One of the documents showed a 2021 letter of then-Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh publicly endorsing the PCPA.

He highlights a picture of Zaher Birawi, who serves as the head of PCPA in the United Kingdom and is known for organizing activist flotilla missions to Gaza over the past 15 years, alongside flotilla activist Greta Thunberg.

The pro-Palestinian outlet Middle East Monitor describes Birawi as a journalist, the chairman of the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza and a founding member of the International Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

Sa’ar also highlights the flotilla’s connection with Saif Abu Kashk, a PCPA member in Spain and the CEO of Cyber Neptune, which the Foreign Ministry called “a front company” that “owns dozens of the ships participating in the ‘Sumud’ flotilla.”

“We must expose these networks. We must follow the money… We must hold those who provide operational support for terrorist organizations accountable,” Sa’ar says, adding, “Israel is on the front line of this fight. But this fight belongs to all democracies.”