Released Gaza Flotilla Activists Cite Systematic Abuse, Humiliation in Israeli Detention
While Dutch participants returning home detailed their ordeal in Israeli detention — including being denied food, water, and medical care — Italian Member of the European Parliament Benedetta Scuderi echoed similar testimonies in Brussels, denouncing the Israeli regime’s actions and the European Union’s silence over the attack on the civilian aid convoy.
Four Dutch activists reached Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport via Spain with support from the Netherlands’ embassy in Madrid.
“On Thursday morning, we were kidnapped by Israeli soldiers. They entered our boats while we were in international waters, trying to break the illegal blockade to reach Gaza and establish a unitarian border,” Roos Ykema, one of the Dutch activists, told reporters at the airport.
Ykema said four soldiers boarded their boat, forced them to sit at the front and later took them to Israel, where they were imprisoned.
“They left us in the sun. They left us without food and water. They refused to provide medication. Some people were beaten up and now we are the first ones, some of the first ones, that were deported from Israel back to the Netherlands,” she said.
“I wish that we had broken the siege, but I am sure that we will keep on pushing, and more boats will go, and Palestine will be free,” Ykema added.
Another activist, Mohamed Abo Naser, also said they faced harsh treatment during detention.
“The peaceful participants of the Global Sumud Flotilla were treated in a very, very bad way,” he said, adding they had been intimidated for several days and were denied water for the first two days, while food was later given irregularly and insufficiently.
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He said they were neither allowed to go outside to see the sun nor walk, nor were they given the opportunity to meet their lawyers or contact their embassies.
“At the same time, some of the participants who needed urgent medication and emergency medical support were denied access to it,” Abo Naser said, noting that some detainees required insulin and that despite repeated calls from all 16 cells, there was no response, putting one participant’s life at serious risk.
He also said they were subjected to racist treatment.
“At the same time, we were treated in a very racist way, so that the people of colour and the people with Muslim or Arab backgrounds were taken away from their cells for no reason, and we didn't know when or where they would get back.
“Also, the people from Palestinian backgrounds with other passports were also treated in a very, very bad way. They were, like some of us were tied, like our hands were cuffed on our backs. We were blind, we couldn't see anything,” he said.
Abo Naser said they were transported in harsh conditions, packed into small buses where the temperature was deliberately raised or lowered to extremes.
“And at the same time, because you cannot see anything, your nose is also covered, so you cannot breathe normally. At some point, you feel that you cannot breathe. At some moment, you feel that you are going to die because you cannot breathe,” he said.
“But in the end, we made it,” he said, adding they had a message for “the prison guards, the Israeli government, and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who visited twice.”
“We are coming back with more ships, with more people, and we will not get enough from breaking the siege,” he added.
Italian MEP recounts detention, mistreatment
Italian European Parliamentarian (MEP) Benedetta Scuderi said that she and hundreds of others were detained and mistreated by Israeli forces after taking part in the Global Sumud Flotilla, which set sail to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Speaking at the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg, Scuderi recounted that she and four other Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were among some 400 activists on board ships that were attacked by Israel in international waters and who were forcibly taken to the port of Ashdod.
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She said the group was held in detention, where they were deprived of basic needs such as food, water, sleep and access to medication, and in some cases subjected to physical assault.
The Italian lawmaker described the flotilla’s mission as a peaceful and humanitarian effort to assist Gaza’s population suffering under a blockade and famine conditions.
She criticized European institutions and governments for failing to act in defense of international law and human dignity, saying the flotilla participants had merely done what political leaders had not.
Scuderi noted that several participants, including French MEPs Rima Hassan and Emma Fourreau, had not yet returned, while another flotilla carrying European activists, including French MEP Melissa Camara, was still approaching Gaza.
She urged the European Union to uphold its role as a defender of democracy and human rights by supporting the mission’s goals.
Meanwhile, Scuderi’s political group, the Greens, proposed adding the issue of Israel’s attack on the flotilla and the unlawful detention of its participants to the European Parliament’s agenda, but the motion was rejected.
Source: TRT World
