Sumud Flotilla Activists Recount Harrowing Experiences In Israeli Dungeons

October 2025

Stories of abuse and wanton brutality have emerged from activists of the Sumud flotilla, which set out to break the Israeli-enforced starvation of Gaza, who were abducted at sea by Israel last month. The humanitarian mission, which involved forty-two vessels that had been given political backing and assurances by several governments, was raided by Israeli soldiers, who imprisoned the nearly five hundred activists and subjected them to a taste of the brutality regularly meted out in Israeli prisons before their release.

The flotilla had been given diplomatic support and encouragement by a number of governments, including Malaysia, Turkiye, Spain, and Colombia, as well as many private individuals and politicians across the world. Former officials, including former Libyan prime minister Omar Hassi and Pakistani senator Mushtaq Khan, joined the flotilla alongside activists such as Thiago Avila, Greta Thunberg, Torkia Chaibi, and Mandla Mandela, grandson of the former South African leader Nelson. In total, forty-six countries were represented; Turkiye most strongly with fifty-six participants, while Spain and Italy had just under fifty apiece. These activists were abducted and held in intentionally cruel conditions under the personal supervision of Israel’s notoriously sadistic interior minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ethnic supremacist who made a point of brutal treatment.

“An Army of Illusion”

Despite their ordeal, participants of the flotilla were surprised at the incompetence of their captors. British journalist Kieran Andrieu described the odd mixture of Israeli brutality and “gimcrackness”; the supposedly elite naval commandos who abducted them struggled to maintain their balance on deck and largely spent the night seasick. Tunisian captain Mohamed Mohieddine was forced to operate an engine when these naval commandos were unable to; when an alarm went off, he recalls, one soldier panicked and another wet his pants. “I realized,” he reflected, “this is a cardboard army.

“We were afraid of an army of illusion. Israel is just an illusion, a spider’s web.”

Despite such incompetence, the reputation for sadism by Israel’s military and security forces was well-earned. Italian journalist Lorenzo D’Agostino described how captives were beaten, kicked, and deprived of fresh water for two days. They were purposely overcrowded in cells, stripped to their underwear, and exposed to the cold. This was encouraged in person by Ben-Gvir’s visit to their Ashdod dungeon, where he bawled in their faces that they were terrorists before the guards subjected them to more abuse. In general, said Turkish journalist Ersin Celik, the captives were treated like “insects.”

Ersin Celik of Turkey speaks to the press after the arrival of 36 Turks and nationals from 12 countries at Istanbul Airport on a special flight, after Israel stopped a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and detained hundreds of people. Photo: AFP / Yasin Akgul

Reflecting a notorious aversion to Islam, the guards saw a copy of the Quran in D’Agostino’s possession and “went berserk – convinced I was Muslim”. Turkish activists Semanur Yaman and Aycin Kantoglu described how they tore the headscarves off Muslim women, forcing cellmates to improvise substitutes with shirts. This was part of a general policy of viciousness toward women; one Somali girl was dragged around by the wrist in a failed attempt to tear off her bracelet. British reporter Yvonne Ridley, who had converted to Islam after an imprisonment by Afghanistan’s Taliban emirate in 2001, underscored the Israeli brutality: “I would rather spend two months in a Taliban prison than two days with the Israelis.”

Perhaps the most recognizable member of the flotilla was the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has been a tireless and outspoken advocate for Palestine. Aged just twenty-two, the thuggish treatment to which she was subjected raised the hackles of the other captives. Ersin Celik, a Turkish filmmaker and journalist, noted that Israeli guards treated the prisoners in general as “insects” but directed particular venom at Thunberg, who was “tortured very badly”, dragged on the ground, and forced to kiss the Israeli flag. Italian journalist Lorenzo D’Agostino added that Thunberg was “humiliated and wrapped in an Israeli flag like a trophy.”

Despite her ordeal, Thunberg’s own reaction centred the Palestinians, thousands of whom have been imprisoned in even worse conditions, and millions of whom have suffered the genocide of Gaza. Not only must aid be let in, she emphasized, but the siege and genocide must be stopped.

“Believe me, I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment, trust me. But that is not the story. What happened here was that Israel–while continuing to worsen and escalate their genocide and mass destruction with genocidal intent attempting to erase an entire population, an entire nation, in front of our very eyes–they once again violated international law by preventing humanitarian aid from getting into Gaza while people are being starved.”

Related:

– Relief Convoys To Gaza Expose Discrepancy Between Society And State

– How Israeli Propaganda Shaped U.S. Media Coverage of the Flotilla Attack