Istanbul, MINA – An Israeli legal center confirmed on Monday that international activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza, experienced ill-treatment while detained by Israeli authorities.
“Many activists testified that from the beginning of the kidnapping in international waters, a series of violations and ill treatment started,” said Lubna Tuma, a legal advisor for the Adalah Legal Center, in a video statement.
“They were forced to sit on their knees and elbows, their foreheads were on the floor, and they kept that for more than one hour. They were not allowed to move or to talk to each other,” she stated.
According to Tuma, Israeli authorities held hearings for the detained activists at Ashdod Port in southern Israel without the presence of lawyers. “This means many activists underwent administrative legal proceedings without legal assistance,” she noted.
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She added that activists were held in a cramped room, three meters in size, with 15 people in a single space, handcuffed behind their backs for over five hours without food or water. “All activists also said they did not receive medical treatment,” she added.
Several activists also reported harsh treatment by Israeli soldiers. “They were insulted, ridiculed, and even subjected to physical torture. The behaviour towards women is much more harder and much more severe than men,” Tuma said.
Arab citizens reportedly received even more discriminatory treatment. “We received testimonies that women wearing the hijab were prohibited from wearing it and from practicing their faith in prison,” she revealed.
Tuma believes the harsh treatment this time was more severe due to the large number of detained activists. “The goal is to intimidate so that no one else dares to join an aid fleet to Gaza,” she asserted.
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Israeli naval personnel attacked and seized the Global Sumud Flotilla ships last Wednesday and detained over 470 activists from more than 50 countries. The fleet was attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenge the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian enclave, which has been devastated by the genocidal war machine of the Zionist regime since October 2023.
Around 170 activists have been deported in the last few days, and another 170 are scheduled for deportation on Monday. Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for almost 18 years.
Since October 2023, the brutal actions of the Israeli military in its genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza have killed over 67,100 people, mostly women and children. The relentless bombardment by the US-backed occupying military has also rendered the Palestinian enclave uninhabitable. These Israeli crimes have triggered an acute humanitarian crisis, marked by starvation and the spread of disease. []
Mi’raj News Agency MINA)
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