Between October 1 and 3, all 42 boats in the Global Sumud Flotilla mission were illegally intercepted when trying to break Israel’s siege on Gaza, leading to the detainment of 462 people in Israel. The GSF was joined by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which had previously launched its own flotilla missions in June and July, which were both intercepted in international waters by Israel, which arrested and deported many of the activists who came to give aid to Gaza. Of the people who were detained during the recent GSF mission, many of them describe horrific conditions placed upon them, such as French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan who was reportedly beaten by Israeli police in detainment, and American activist David Adler who described being stripped, zip-tied, and blindfolded before his detention, as well as being forced to be photographed Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Givir. The most famous person to experience these conditions is Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who reportedly was physically and verbally abused by guards, forced to undress, and held in an insect-infested cell where she was deprived of food and water, and other terrible conditions. During a press conference after her release, she didn’t elaborate any further on her conditions because she did not want headlines to be about her conditions, but rather the conditions that Palestinians face every day, saying, “If Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a well-known, white person with a Swedish passport this way, just imagine what they do to Palestinians behind closed doors.”
With evidence of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees, it isn’t very hard to imagine the mistreatment that Palestinians receive, with even those in the Israeli government giving evidence to show the abuse. Military Advocate General of the Israeli “Defense” Forces, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, resigned from her position and admitted on Friday that she leaked footage of abuse against Palestinian detainees, which has led to her arrest by the Israeli government. The footage, which was broadcast on Israeli news channels in August 2024, shows reserve soldiers at the Sde Teiman military base taking a Palestinian detainee and using riot shields to block visibility around them, while they allegedly beat and stabbed him in the rectum with a sharp object. Of course, this isn’t the only evidence of mass abuse by Israel, with a report by a UN commission of inquiry found that thousands of detainess from Gaza had been “subjected to widespread and systematic abuse, physical and psychological violence, and sexual and gender-based violence amounting to the war crime and crime against humanity of torture and the war crime of rape and other forms of sexual violence.”
Since the GSF mission, the FFC launched another flotilla, The Conscience, as well as three smaller ships. The Conscience, as well as the three other ships, were illegally intercepted by Israel, which detained and deported the 93 journalists, doctors, and activists aboard the flotilla. The boats carried vital aid for Gaza, worth more than $110,000 in medicines, respiratory equipment, and nutritional supplies destined for Gaza’s starving hospitals. These flotillas only bring aid to Gaza and all follow international law, but Israel continues to stop them from delivering aid to the genocided population, which is leading to even more death in Gaza.
