Detained Gaza flotilla activists deported after abuse allegations spark outrage [Getty]
Pro-Palestine activists abducted and detained after Israel intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) in international waters are being transferred for deportation to Turkey amid mounting allegations of abuse and mistreatment, according to Israeli legal advocacy group Adalah.
In a statement shared with The New Arab on Thursday, Adalah said the Israeli Prison Service and state authorities informed the organisation that most of the approximately 430 participants involved in the latest Gaza flotilla mission would be transferred to Ramon Airport in Be’er Ora in southern Israel before being deported later in the day.
The flotilla had sought to challenge Israel’s blockade on Gaza and deliver aid to the besieged enclave.
“Adalah’s legal team is actively monitoring the transit process to ensure that all activists are safely and fully deported without further delay,” the group said in a statement.
However, Adalah said a hearing was ongoing at Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court for flotilla participant Zohar Regev, an Israeli citizen accused of offences including “illegal entry into Israel”, “unlawful stay”, and attempting to breach the blockade on Gaza.
The organisation described the accusations as “absurd”, arguing that Regev had been “forcefully abducted” in international waters and taken into Israeli territory entirely against her will.
Turkey has confirmed it is sending charter flights to repatriate flotilla activists after around 50 vessels departed from the country last week before being intercepted by Israeli forces off the coast of Cyprus.
“We plan to bring our citizens and participants from third countries to Turkey via special charter flights we will organise today,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in a statement.
The developments come as Adalah warned that “the entire operation, from the unlawful interception in international waters to the systemic torture, humiliation, and arbitrary detention of peaceful activists, constitutes a flagrant violation of international law”.
The detention of flotilla participants sparked international outrage after activists were taken to Ashdod port, where footage shared by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir appeared to show detainees kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs and their foreheads pressed against the ground.
Adalah had previously reported that activists experienced “systemic violations of due process, and widespread physical and psychological abuse by Israeli authorities”.
“Our team received a large number of complaints of extreme violence, revealing a new pattern of physical abuse deliberately used by Israeli authorities. This violence resulted in severe, widespread injuries, including at least three individuals who were hospitalised and subsequently released,” the group added.
The organisation also said participants reported severe degradation, humiliation and sexual harassment, while several women alleged that Israeli authorities forcibly removed their hijabs.
Israeli authorities have not publicly responded to the allegations.
Clare Azzougarh, daughter of former RAF pilot Malcolm Ducker, confirmed to The New Arab that the 72-year-old British veteran was among those detained during the flotilla mission and appeared in the footage that triggered international condemnation. Ducker had also participated in last year’s aid flotilla to Gaza.
Azzougarh accused the British government of failing to adequately protect British nationals aboard the convoy.
“Despite my father’s MP Mike Martin writing several letters to the foreign secretary weeks ago, he has not yet received a reply as to what steps the UK government will take to ensure the safety and welfare of my 72-year-old father, an RAF veteran aboard the Sumud Flotilla,” she told The New Arab.
“The fact that my father is a veteran being placed in a severe stress position that amounts to torture, his head forced into the concrete, his hands zip-tied behind his neck, with the government taking no serious steps that will bring a stop to this and get him home, is an outrage. It is obvious the government is letting their politics of impunity for Israel at any cost interfere with their duty of care and responsibility to its own citizens,” she added.
The UK Foreign Office announced on Thursday that it had summoned Israel’s charge d’affaires over the footage showing the treatment of activists, following similar diplomatic moves by Spain and Poland.
Footage posted by Ben-Gvir on Wednesday on X, captioned “Welcome to Israel”, showed dozens of activists kneeling with their hands tied while the Israeli national anthem played in the background. The footage also appeared to show Ben-Gvir waving an Israeli flag and shouting at detainees.
The latest flotilla mission marked the third attempt within a year to challenge Israel’s decades-long blockade of Gaza, where Palestinians continue to face catastrophic shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel amid Israel’s war on the enclave.
