Seven activists on Gaza flotilla intercepted by Israel return to UK

Seven members of the Global Sumud Flotilla have returned to the UK and shared stories of beatings and mistreatment by Israeli soldiers.

The activists were detained when their flotilla attempted to breach Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. 50 boats were intercepted in international waters, some 250 miles off the coast of Israel.

Activists, along with journalists and at least one legislator from Italy were transferred onto military boats and brought to a larger military vessel at the Ashdod port in southern Israel, where they were held in containers, according to their accounts.

Flotilla member Katy Davidson, 49, told the BBC she had marks from handcuffs.

The Cornwall native arrived in London in a grey tracksuit, and added: ‘When I asked them to loosen them, they said they didn’t care. They didn’t care about human rights or whether I lost my hand.’

Hannah Schafer, a 62-year-old sailing instructor, described the ships they were taken onto as ‘prisons’ and said the group was ‘systematically tortured and abused’.

The IDF has claimed the detainees were treated ‘appropriately and respectfully’.

They added: ‘No specific incidents of deviation from these binding procedures are known within the IDF. Any concrete complaints submitted to the IDF on the matter will be examined thoroughly.’

One activist was seen with cuts and bruises on his back as he walked topless through Istanbul airport. He flashed a peace sign.

Italian journalist Alessandro Mantovani, one of the activists flown home earlier, said he had been beaten up on arrival in Israeli detention in what he described as a container, calling it a ‘place of ​terror’.

‘Beat you up means they kicked me in the legs and punched me in the face. These are people who know what they are doing, so I don’t have any major visible marks…

‘They would beat you up and would tell you ‘Welcome ‌to Israel”, ⁠he told reporters on arrival at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.

Another Italian activist, Dario Carotenuto, a lawmaker from the 5-Star Movement, said he had been punched in the eye and kicked while detained.

It comes after a video, released earlier by Israel, showed protesters handcuffed behind their backs and left to kneel face down on the floor in rows.

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, was seen smirking, taunting and telling detained activists they should be imprisoned for a very long time.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that although Israel has every right to stop ‘provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters,’ the way that Ben Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists ‘is not in line with Israel’s values and norms.’

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