The return of hundreds of Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) activists from Israeli detention, despite warm welcomes by the public and press in cities the flotilla had launched from, brought harrowing testimonies of torture and showed that the confrontation has not ended.
As global outrage grew over viral videos showing international activists being mistreated and humiliated at Ashdod Port after their forced seizure in international waters, the diplomatic crisis followed them home.
At Bilbao’s Loiu Airport in the Basque Country, clashes broke out upon the arrival of flotilla members, resulting in four arrests on charges of serious disobedience, resistance, and assault against authority. The GSF confirmed that three of those detained were flotilla activists.
The Basque regional government’s Security Minister, Bingen Zupiria, expressed regret over the incident and requested an urgent parliamentary appearance to provide explanations, while the Internal Affairs Division of the Ertzaintza (the Basque police force) immediately opened an investigation into whether officers’ conduct had been in accordance with regulations, according to an official statement.
“It is a matter of public record that the Ertzaintza has maintained deep, historical procurement pipelines, commercial contracts, and tactical training ties with Israeli private security firms,” the GSF stated on Saturday.
The arrests are a reflection of the charged atmosphere surrounding the flotilla’s return, one shaped by what activists reported enduring in Israeli custody.
The story behind their detention unfolded in two waves. In late April, Israeli naval forces intercepted the flotilla off the coast of Crete, detaining over 175 activists before deporting them back to Europe. Undeterred, the coalition regrouped, relaunched from Marmaris in Turkey with a significantly expanded fleet of 54 vessels, and set sail again, only to be met, on May 18 and 19, by a second and far larger Israeli military operation in international waters off Cyprus, resulting in the violent interception of 50 vessels and the unlawful detention of at least 428 activists.
A ‘prison boat’
Amid escalating confrontation at sea, participants provided testimonies about their detention conditions, with the most horrifying accounts centering on a single US-built and funded vessel that participants called the “torture boat.”
According to the GSF, detainees were processed in a makeshift prison on the INS Nahshon before being taken into darkened containers where groups of Israeli army commandos brutalized them one by one.
Activist Yassine Benjelloun described the moment he was brought aboard: “He throws me in a container that is dark, and all of a sudden, I hear, ‘Welcome to Israel.’ And I start getting hit, like first hit on the head, second hit in the ribs, then I fall, then they kick me. And I’m hearing people screaming, and all of a sudden people stop screaming, and I don’t see anything, and I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
The Israeli military has described the INS Nahshon as a logistics and landing vessel used by the Israeli Navy to transport troops, equipment, and supplies. The vessel was manufactured in a US shipyard and acquired through US military aid funding. It is identified as part of the Israeli navy’s amphibious support fleet designed for troop deployment and coastal transport operations.
Veronica Otero, the 22nd person to board the prison vessel, witnessed the processing of nearly all 180 detainees over three days, according to a testimony reported by the GSF. “I can say that all were in many ways abused, not one single person walking with nothing,” she said. “Among them there were 36 fractures, many broken ribs, torso, shoulders, and back. People were in agony. People were not breathing due to the broken ribs.”
GSF legal team representative Bader Al-Naomi, speaking during a live video call at a GSF presser on Thursday, laid out the scale of the operation in detail. The interception involved a coalition of 50 vessels under both the GSF and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the majority of them small sailboats. Of those aboard, 429 individuals were unlawfully and violently removed from their vessels and transferred to a ship refitted to function as a prison.
The flotilla was encircled from all directions by four large military vessels. Al-Naomi described widespread and systematic physical and sexual violence against participants, with injuries documented across multiple cases, several requiring hospitalization. Less-than-lethal weapons were deployed during the operation, injuring at least three people. Six vessels were reported to have been fired upon, and one was rammed by a military boat.
Video footage from the GSF seen by Al Manassa from aboard one of the intercepted sailboats captured participants calling out not to shoot as an Israeli forces’ vessel bore down on them. Gunfire was audible in the seconds that followed, after which one participant could be heard shouting, “Why are you shooting?” as those on deck scrambled for cover.
Non-intercepted vessels subsequently carried out rescue operations. Al-Naomi stated that Israeli forces deliberately disabled multiple intercepted boats, ripping sails, tampering with water supplies, and flooding lower decks. At least one vessel sank.
Sexual assault
French activist Adrien Berthel described being singled out for targeted humiliation and beating after Israeli forces noticed he was wearing nail polish and made assumptions about his sexuality.
According to the GSF, at least 15 sexual assaults have been documented aboard that vessel alone, including anal rape and forcible penetration by a handgun. Israeli forces tasered volunteers in the face, neck, and body, the strikes multiplying with each new group brought in. Multiple participants reported being photographed during strip searches, with guards laughing throughout.
Italian economist Luca Poggi, speaking to Al Jazeera on his arrival in Rome, said: “We were stripped, thrown to the ground, kicked. Many of us were tasered, some were sexually assaulted, and some were denied access to a lawyer.”
Prosecutors in Italy opened an investigation into possible crimes including kidnapping and sexual assault based on the accounts of returning activists. The Israeli Prison Service dismissed the allegations entirely, Reuters reported Friday.
“We’re very concerned about [physical and sexual abuse] reports… And people who were responsible for that treatment should be held to account,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary General said on Friday.
Global outcry
The interception triggered an immediate diplomatic backlash, driven in large part by video footage that circulated widely showing Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir touring Ashdod Port and mocking bound detainees as Israeli officers assaulted and humiliated them, including dragging a female activist by her hair, with the Israeli national anthem blaring in the background.
At least ten countries summoned Israeli ambassadors in response: Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Several governments described the scenes as unacceptable violations of basic human rights and demanded apologies.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu partly distanced himself from Ben-Gvir’s conduct, calling it inconsistent with “Israel’s values and standards,” while defending Israel’s right to block what he described as a Hamas-linked provocation.
One of the women visible in the footage was Catrina Graham. Her mother, Imelda Graham, watching the videos from home, joined Thursday’s virtual presser. “I’m so pleased that her actions have gone global and that it seems to be making a genuine difference.”
She added: “I’m hoping this is a turning point and that our governments will listen. I’m delighted to see the global outpouring behind this, but just remember who is behind this: it’s the children of Gaza and the families of Gaza, and they really need us to continue this fight and this struggle.”
Her words capture what the flotilla’s organizers had always argued was the point: that three months of confrontation at sea, and the testimonies now emerging from it, were never really about the boats.
