Gaza Flotilla Member Details "Cruelty" of Israeli Abduction at Sea; Two Activists Still Detained

We get a firsthand account of the violent raid, arrest and detention of members of the Global Sumud Flotilla, after Israeli forces intercepted the humanitarian mission in international waters Thursday. “We were held in a makeshift prison with shipping containers and barbed wire. Many people were subject to aggressive physical force. Of the 56 aid-carrying vessels attempting to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, more than a third were seized by the Israeli military,” recounts flotilla member Hannah Smith. Some flotilla members had to be rescued after one boat was “left sinking,” Smith reports.

Two members, Saif Abukeshek of Spain and Thiago Ávila of Brazil, are now being held without charges in an Israeli prison. “It is a favorite tactic of the Israeli regime to try to bully people into silence and submission, to threaten people, and they’ve gotten away with it for decades,” says Rania Batrice, a Palestinian American member of the Global Sumud Flotilla’s communications team. Abukeshek’s wife, Sally Issa, says her husband “started a hunger strike, and he was treated very bad, so bad that all the activists on the boat could hear him screaming.” The Spanish and Brazilian governments have denounced the arrests as “flagrantly illegal” and are demanding their citizens’ release.