Anwar said 23 Malaysians were among the activists detained when Israeli forces boarded several GSF ships in the Mediterranean Sea earlier today.

Apart from Rubio, Anwar said that he and his team would also be reaching out to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Anwar said he had contacted Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar’s prime minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Jassim Al Thani earlier.

“We want them to intercede and take immediate action to ensure that all those who were detained by the Israeli regime will be released,” he said in a livestream on Facebook.

“I would like to stress that the acts of brutality by the Israeli regime need to be stopped immediately. Malaysia will not remain silent if our rights and dignity are being trampled upon.”

Anwar stressed that the flotilla volunteers did not commit any crime as they were only bringing food and other aid to residents in Gaza, who are facing hunger and illnesses.

Earlier, FMT reported that the Sumud Nusantara Command Centre had lost contact with 17 of the 23 Malaysians in the flotilla after Israeli forces boarded several GSF ships in the Mediterranean Sea.

Israel’s foreign ministry confirmed that several GSF ships had been stopped and their passengers taken to an Israeli port.

The ministry said that all detained activists would be deported to Europe.

“The passengers are safe and in good health,” the ministry said in a post on X.