EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: Cathedral City woman in Israeli custody to return home this week
Athena Jreij
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. (KESQ) – A 37-year-old Cathedral City woman is expected to return home this week, after she was detained by Israeli Naval Forces on a humanitarian aid boat headed for Gaza.
View this post on Instagram
News Channel 3 first brought viewers this story Thursday night, after sitting down with Ramirez’s mother, Angie Torres. She says her daughter joined the Global Sumud Flotilla to bring medical aid and food to Gaza, following a months-long humanitarian crisis.
Her family believes she was detained earlier this week when nearly all of the flotilla’s boats were intercepted by the Israeli Navy.
Our exclusive story caught the attention of Representative Ruiz, who reached out to the Israeli Embassy and State Department. Ruiz says after his phone calls with officials, they informed him Ramirez would be heading home within the next few days.
“Thanks to the reporting by KESQ we got the story and my staff got to work immediately. We spoke to the embassy, and I said that I wanted to know about Geraldine’s whereabouts, whether she’s okay, and I want her to return home immediately. They called us back and said that she’s okay, that she’s cared for and that as soon as tomorrow she would be on a flight back home …
As a parent, I empathize and wanted to make sure that we provided her mother the answer, and fought to bring her daughter back as soon as possible,” Representative Ruiz said.
While it’s unclear where Ramirez will land in the U.S. and the exact day she’ll return, her family says she’s expected home in the next week.
“I believe within the next couple days, she’s going to be boarding a plane and getting back into the U.S. I feel very happy and so grateful with him [Ruiz] and with the community. I didn’t know so many people watch the news because so many people contacted us,” Torres, Ramirez’s mother, said.
Stick with News Channel 3 as we continue to follow this story.