The Latest: After nearly two days of silence, the Vietnamese Embassy in Israel has announced it is “verifying information” and “carrying out citizen protection measures” for Tiêu Nguyễn Bảo Ngọc.
On the morning of May 20, a Vietnam News Agency reporter in Tel Aviv, Israel, stated that the Consular Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was verifying the case to provide citizen protection for Tiêu Nguyễn Bảo Ngọc, who is also known as Bảo Ngọc Ashley.
She is a Vietnamese citizen who was reportedly detained by Israeli Occupation Forces in international waters while aboard a humanitarian flotilla carrying aid to the Gaza Strip in Palestine.
The case has now also been reported by several Vietnamese state media outlets, including VnExpress, VTV, Tuổi Trẻ, and Tiền Phong.
The Details: The Vietnamese Embassy in Israel is taking protective measures for Tiêu Nguyễn Bảo Ngọc. At around noon on May 20, a post appeared on the Facebook page “Viet Nam Embassy in Israel,” which is believed to be the embassy’s official page.
The post stated that the embassy had contacted Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to “verify information,” request humane treatment, and ensure full compliance with relevant international regulations and conventions on “citizen protection” and “human rights.”
Who is Bảo Ngọc? Tiêu Nguyễn Bảo Ngọc, born in 1998, is a former teacher, a baker, and a co-founder of VietforPalestine, which is one of the first pro-Palestine online platforms in Việt Nam. She is the first and, so far, the only Vietnamese citizen to join the Global Sumud Flotilla on a mission to deliver aid to Gaza.
The Background: The diplomatic response follows the release of a video on May 20 by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The footage shows Israeli security forces restraining international activists who were detained while taking part in the Global Sumud Flotilla, an aid convoy bound for Gaza.
The video displays several people kneeling in rows with their heads lowered to the ground and their hands tied behind their backs using plastic zip ties. Ben-Gvir shared the video on social media with the English caption: “Welcome to Israel.”
In the footage, he is seen holding an Israeli flag and engaging in actions that were widely viewed as mocking and provocative toward the detainees. At one point, he is shown shouting at a bound detainee: “The people of Israel live!”
The video sparked a fierce backlash from several countries whose citizens were aboard the aid flotilla, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
Why It Matters: The detention of Tiêu Nguyễn Bảo Ngọc has sharply divided Vietnamese social media users.
One faction is calling on the government to rescue her, while the opposing side argues that the state had already warned citizens against traveling to war zones and should not be held responsible for the voluntary actions of an individual.
Some accounts have even described the calls for the government to rescue her as an attempt to incite public opinion.
The division is also visible among prominent pro-government Facebook pages, with Tifosi expressing support for Tiêu Nguyễn Bảo Ngọc and ComCom criticizing her.
Thạch Hãn wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on May 21, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights of the English translation.
