Paul Murphy returns to Ireland after being held in Egypt
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy, who was detained twice in Egypt while participating in the Global March to Gaza, has returned to Ireland.
He was among a group of participants in the march from Ireland who flew back to Dublin.
Speaking to journalists at Dublin Airport, the People Before Profit/Solidarity TD said that "this phase of the global march to Gaza is finished".
However, he said that the international campaign for Gaza will continue and will focus next on the meeting between EU foreign ministers and Israel's foreign minister in Brussels next week.
Mr Murphy said that all of the Irish people involved in the march "are fine" but there are others still detained in Egypt and for that reason he had to be careful "in terms of what comments we make about Egypt".
He said he still does not have his phone back following his detention.
Earlier, Mr Murphy told RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme that no other Irish citizens were currently detained in Egypt.
Mr Murphy said it was not initially clear to him that he was being detained.
"For the first three hours or so, it was just a slow, bureaucratic process. Things were taking a long time. I asked to leave and was told I couldn't. The whole time they had my passport, and it became clear that I was being detained, as unfortunately hundreds of have been in Egypt, and many people deported.
"Yesterday, in total, I was in the police station for nine hours," he added.
The TD for Dublin South West said that there would be no renewed attempt for the group to continue their march to Rafah, and that they were disappointed that they had not succeeded.
Have now been released, thanks again for all the support. Others from #GlobalMarchToGaza still detained.
Will comment further when I've left Egypt.
Free Palestine 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/ZWlmooSQuG
— Paul Murphy 🇵🇸 (@paulmurphy_TD) June 16, 2025
"Obviously, we are disappointed that we didn't get to Rafah. But, we have had probably the largest international people-powered coalition for Palestine in a very long time."
Hundreds of people went to Egypt for the Global March to Gaza, an international initiative intended to exert pressure for an end to an Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory and draw attention to the humanitarian crisis there.
Mr Murphy said that pressure needed to be put on western governments to get Israel "to stop what they are doing".
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