Flotilla for Gaza: Expelled Activists from Israel Report Mistreatment

Several activists from the Gaza flotilla, expelled by Israel on Monday, reported upon their arrival in Athens that they had been "beaten" and treated "like animals" after the Israeli navy intercepted their convoy at sea.

"We were treated like animals. We were treated like terrorists," Yasmin Acar, a member of the steering committee of the Global Sumud Flotilla that departed from Barcelona, Spain, in early September, told AFP.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry claimed that "all legal rights" of the activists, including those of Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, were "fully respected," labeling their statements as "lies."

"We were physically assaulted and deprived of sleep," Acar asserted, claiming she received neither drinking water nor food "for the first 48 hours" of her detention.

Arriving from Germany, she is among the 161 new activists expelled by Israel who landed at Athens International Airport on Monday afternoon.

Ten others landed in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Earlier in the day, Israel announced it had expelled 171 activists, including the environmentalist from Sweden.

At Athens airport, Thunberg and other expelled activists were welcomed with a massive Palestinian flag and supporters chanting "freedom for Palestine" and "Viva viva la flotilla!" as noted by an AFP journalist.

Upon her arrival, Greta Thunberg raised her fist and waved a keffiyeh, stating that the Global Sumud flotilla "was the largest attempt to break Israel's illegal and inhumane blockade by sea." She also mentioned "the mistreatment and abuses suffered" during their imprisonment but refrained from providing details.

Euro-MP Rima Hassan also claimed to AFP that she had been "beaten."

"I was beaten as I was getting into the van by two Israeli police officers," the representative from La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) asserted.

"There are many things to denounce," she emphasized, dressed in a gray tracksuit similar to those worn in Israeli prisons, like Greta Thunberg.

"We were sometimes 13-15 in a cell... on mattresses on the floor" in "the high-security Israeli prison (in the desert) of Negev," she stated. "We really lacked everything."

Another LFI French MP, François Piquemal, also condemned the "humiliation sequences" they faced after their arrest.

"We saw neither lawyer, nor doctor, nor had the right to go outside, nor a shower," he stressed.

Among those expelled were nationals from Greece, Italy, France, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Switzerland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Serbia, and the United States, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

The Global Sumud flotilla aimed to break the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip and deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.

The fifty boats that made up the flotilla were intercepted off the coast of Egypt and Gaza between October 1 and 3, which organizers and Amnesty International claim was illegal.

Israel asserts that the boats violated a prohibited zone. The Israeli Foreign Ministry claimed on Monday evening on X that it discovered "barely 2 tons (of humanitarian aid) spread over 42 vessels," which "represents less than a tenth of the contents of a single humanitarian aid truck."

According to Israeli police, more than 470 people aboard the flotilla boats were arrested. Expulsions began on October 2.

Approximately 138 participants remain in detention in Israel, as reported by the Israeli Foreign Ministry to AFP.

Among them are thirteen Brazilians, three of whom have begun a hunger strike, according to Lara Souza, spokesperson for the Brazilian delegation within the flotilla.

Brazilian President Lula has called for their release and demanded on X that this "absurd situation end as soon as possible," lamenting that Israel has "violated international law" and "continues to commit violations by keeping them in detention."

The war in Gaza was triggered by Israel in response to an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian movement Hamas on Israeli soil two years ago, on October 7, 2023.