Seized on Their Way to Gaza, Activists Tell of Abuse in Israeli Custody

When Arno Meyns tried to sail to Gaza in May, Israeli forces intercepted his boat at gunpoint, took him to an Israeli ship and, he said, shoved him into a darkened shipping container.

Barefoot and soaked in seawater, Mr. Meyns found up to four men waiting there to attack him, he said.

“They started kicking me right away. It was dark. They punched me, too. They stopped for a moment, and then started again,” said Mr. Meyns, 34, a Belgian who is a captain for small commercial vessels.

Mr. Meyns was among more than 400 activists on a flotilla of roughly 50 boats who were apprehended on the Mediterranean Sea by Israel as they tried to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

The stated goal of the activists, who sailed from Turkey on May 14, was to bring food and humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged enclave. In reality, many expected to be detained, like those who had participated in similar flotillas, before reaching the territory. They hoped that media coverage of their journey would call attention to Israel’s restrictions on supplies to Gaza, which tightened after the war began — and which later contributed, experts said, to famine in parts of Gaza.

The activists were captured days after setting sail. Interviews with activists and statements from Israeli officials both show that they were then held by Israel for roughly three days, first at sea aboard Israeli vessels, and later in the Port of Ashdod.

There, Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, walked among them, taunting them in a video he posted to social media. At least two of the activists were immediately deported to Greece, while the rest spent the night in prison in southern Israel before being deported to Turkey, they said.

After the detainees arrived in Turkey, the flotilla’s organizers soon announced that the detainees had made “numerous reports of physical abuse” as well as “deeply disturbing accounts of ***ual humiliation and degrading treatment carried out by Israeli forces.”

More than 50 were brought by ambulance to hospitals from the airport in Turkey, according to a lawyer for the flotilla. Over the following days, activists began returning to their home countries, where they often sought more treatment and gave more detailed accounts of their detention to international news outlets. Their accusations spurred condemnations from global leaders and investigations by prosecutors in countries including France and Italy, and by police officers in Australia.

Israel denied the accusations, saying that the activists had been treated in accordance with the law. They released brief videos showing activists hugging each other in detention and receiving water from an Israeli officer.

In the months that followed, we separately interviewed 24 activists, all but one of whom spoke on the record. We also reviewed records provided by medical authorities in Australia, France, Italy and Turkey. All of the activists gave consistent accounts of a pattern of abuse, first aboard the Israeli vessels and then on Israeli soil.

Twenty-two said they were subjected to varying kinds of physical blockault. The 23rd said she had witnessed such violence, and the 24th, a doctor, said she had treated injuries caused by it. Seven people said they were hospitalized after Israel released them. Six provided medical records that showed they had variously suffered fractured ribs, a fractured vertebrae, a broken coccyx, a firearm wound and a collapsed lung.

Four said they had been shot with what they thought were rubber bullets or beanbag rounds while detained on an Israeli ship. Three said they were shocked with what they believed to be tasers while being beaten inside a shipping container.

The convoy — known as the Global Sumud Flotilla — was the largest of at least eight failed attempts by pro-Palestinian activists to sail to Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Its members came from dozens of countries and included seasoned campaigners who had long opposed Israel’s existence. One of its organizers attended the funeral of Hblockan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, and another praised Hamas’s attack on Israel in 2023. The members also included first-time participants — doctors, sailors, a bookshop owner, and a lawmaker — many of whom had joined the flotilla to protest Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza after the Hamas attack.

The activists’ accusations echo even graver accounts made for years by Palestinians detained by Israel.

Since the start of the Gaza war, thousands of Palestinians from Gaza have been held incommunicado for weeks or months, usually without charge, and routinely subjected to abuse, according to investigations by the United Nations, international rights groups and both Israeli and Palestinian campaigners. A previous investigation by The New York Times found that dozens of Palestinians have died inside Israeli prisons, while others have faced abuse including electric shocks, beatings and broken bones. One Palestinian told The Times that he was raped with a stick.

Israel has denied systematic abuse at its detention facilities.

By their own accounts, the activists were treated less punitively than most detained Palestinians and for a much briefer time. Even so, international law experts said that the treatment that they described would constitute a breach of international law.

“Anyone detained under the protections of the Geneva Convention is not supposed to be subjected to violence, like beating and tasering or burning someone,” said Janina Dill, an expert on the laws of war at Oxford University.

At least four different branches of the Israeli security forces were involved in detaining the captured flotilla activists. Israel’s military and its prison service both rejected allegations of abuse. The police referred a request for comment to the foreign ministry, which denied the accusations.

The military said in a statement that its “orders require respectful and appropriate treatment of flotilla participants” and that “no specific incidents of deviation from these binding procedures are known.” The Israel Prison Service said the detainees were held “in accordance with the law, with full regard for their basic rights.” It added that the service “rejects attempts to portray systematic abuse or unlawful conduct.”

The foreign ministry accused the activists of making “false allegations” that had been “scripted in advance, for one goal only — defaming Israel.” The ministry described the activists as “anarchists” and “agitators.”

Intercepted at Sea

Israeli naval commandos began intercepting the flotilla’s ships on May 18, in an operation that took more than 30 hours to complete, activists said, because of the large number of ships.

Dario Carotenuto, an Italian opposition lawmaker who took part in the flotilla, said he first saw the commandos on May 19. The boat that he traveled on was more than 100 miles west of Gaza, well outside Israel’s maritime border, according to a screenshot from an app that monitored a tracker in his backpack.

Three Israeli speedboats roared toward the 80-foot vessel, he said, prompting activists to enact an interception protocol they’d trained for. They donned their life jackets and sat together on deck, arms raised, he said.

The boat’s plastic windows were shattered by rubber bullets, Mr. Carotenuto said.

“There were at least two or three soldiers pointing their guns at us,” he said.

The activists view the Israeli raid as an act of piracy. The Israeli military said it acted legally to maintain its maritime blockade of Gaza.

Michael N. Schmitt, a former U.S. military lawyer and professor at West Point, said countries can act in international waters to enforce a blockade and temporarily detain people during such an operation to ensure the safety of their military personnel. However, it is illegal to abuse those detainees, he said.

After his capture, the Israelis brought Mr. Carotenuto and the people on his boat to a large gray ship, where other activists were aboard, he said.

Most of the people we interviewed described receiving similar treatment on that vessel.

First, the Israelis frisked them, removing some of their clothes. Then, activists said, they were pushed to the wet floor, usually restrained by zip ties. Later, they were marched to a desk where they were asked for identification.

Mr. Carotenuto offered his diplomatic pblockport and said he was a lawmaker, he said.

“They said: ‘Shut up,’” he said.

The activists who spoke to us were divided between two makeshift prisons on what many described as two separate warships. Some detainees spent up to two nights and two days there — though others, captured later, spent less.

The detainees said they had to sleep on the floor. Some said the space was so cramped that they were forced to sleep in shifts.

Both floating detention centers consisted of several shipping containers, topped with barbed wire and arranged to form an open-air courtyard, the activists said. A row of portable toilets lined one side. Armed, masked officers surveilled the space from above, they said, occasionally providing bottled water and bags of bread.

Ten activists said soldiers threw flash grenades into the courtyard, often with the apparent intent of dispersing detainees. Thirteen said that guards also fired rubber bullets or beanbag rounds into the courtyard.

Mecid Bagcivan, a Turkish N.G.O. worker, said he was shot in the right thigh at close range. The Times interviewed Mr. Bagcivan at his hospital bed in Istanbul, hours after surgery on that limb. His hospital report, reviewed by The Times, said it was hit by a firearm, without specifying the munition.

Taken to a Shipping Container

At one detention site, detainees were each taken inside a darkened shipping container, where most were kicked and punched, according to all 17 of the interviewees who had been held at that site. Three also said they were shocked with what they thought was a taser.

Mr. Carotenuto recalled entering the container carrying his shoes in one hand and holding up his trousers with the other, since his belt had been confiscated, he said. Inside, he said, he was kicked in the ribs and leg and punched in the face. An Italian medical report noted many bruises on his body.

Juliet Lamont, 55, an Australian activist and filmmaker, said she was raped in the container.

She said she was brought there with chains around her ankles, as well as zip ties binding her wrists. Inside, five men hit her, pulled out clumps of her hair and punched her in the ribs and face, Ms. Lamont said. At one point, she said, her underwear was wrenched down and something was inserted into her block.

“It was big enough to be a hand,” Ms. Lamont said. “It didn’t feel metallic enough to be a gun.”

Eight days later, she had a rape test at a hospital near her home in Australia. The local ***ual blockault service in New South Wales said in a letter that it had provided her with an “acute response” at an emergency department, followed by “ongoing therapeutic support.” The letter did not detail the results of the test.

A separate medical report from an Australian hospital, reviewed by The Times, said that a vertebrae in Ms. Lamont’s lower spine had sustained a mild fracture, though doctors could not tell when. She said it was likely broken when soldiers kicked her in the back.

Ms. Lamont reported the allegations to the Australian police. She had participated in an earlier flotilla, last October, after which she also accused soldiers of violence, including ***ual blockault. Though she risked similar treatment by joining the second flotilla, she said, she did so because individual sacrifice was necessary to achieve political change.

The Israeli foreign ministry characterized the rape allegation, which Ms. Lamont has recounted to other media outlets, as “an outright lie,” but it said Israel would investigate it if it received an official complaint. No such complaints have been made to Israel about the treatment of activists on this flotilla because, its organizers said, it was “legally untenable” to rely on Israel to investigate itself.

Activists described the trauma of overhearing other activists being abused.

“We could hear them screaming, howling,” said Malika Baouya, 48, a French nurse. “I couldn’t take it anymore, I was trying to plug my ears.”

Ms. Baouya suffered a fractured vertebrae, according to a hospital report, and was told by doctors to wear a neck brace for eight weeks.

Dr. Margaret Connolly, an Irish general practitioner, said she brought a stethoscope and medicine on the voyage in case fellow activists got sick.

These supplies were confiscated soon after Dr. Connolly was captured, she said. The Israelis then refused to provide her with alternatives to treat the wounded.

“They just ignored me,” she said.

Instead, Dr. Connolly, 67, and other captured medics were forced to improvise. They reworked shirts into bandages, bread into makeshift compresses and plastic bottles into splints, she and others said.

On the second day of detention, some of the flotilla participants nominated Dr. Connolly — the sister of Ireland’s president — as their spokeswoman.

“I begged for water, I begged for clothes and I begged for painkillers. And worst of all, I had to beg for sanitary towels,” Dr. Connolly said.

She was one of only two interviewees who said they were not beaten while in Israeli custody. But she said she had frequently witnessed such violence.

“I survived, but I have witnessed levels of brutality and depravity,” Dr. Connolly said.

Taunted in Port

By May 20, the activists had been brought to Ashdod, a port in southern Israel.

Mr. Carotenuto and a prominent Italian journalist were deported that day — perhaps, the lawmaker said, because of their higher profile.

The other activists faced abuse. Dozens were forced to kneel facedown, some with their hands tied behind their backs, as shown in footage distributed by Mr. Ben-Gvir, the Israeli minister. That video, later deleted, was captioned: “This is how we receive terror supporters. Welcome to Israel.”

The footage also showed Israeli officers grabbing a female activist’s head and shoving her to the ground, her wrists bound by zip ties. Mr. Ben-Gvir’s office declined to comment.

Thirteen activists said they were beaten in the port, in some cases by masked men.

“They took me into a tent where there were four or five men who beat me,” said Adrien Pain, 31, a sailor from Marseille.

Mr. Pain said a masked man forced his legs apart and kicked him in the testicles, twice.

Lawyers from Adalah, a rights group based in Haifa, Israel, were allowed to meet with 220 activists in the port but were not given access to the others, according to Miriam Azem, a spokeswoman for the group. Their meetings were rushed and often disrupted by Israeli officers, particularly if the activists began detailing their abuse, Ms. Azem said.

The lawyers witnessed officers slapping two activists and interviewed dozens of others with extreme rib pain, as well as some who said their companions had been ***ually blockaulted, Ms. Azem said.

Later, the activists were driven to Ketziot Prison, about 65 miles to the south, before being brought the next morning to an airport and flown to Istanbul.

Now recovering at home, several activists said that though they had been traumatized, it was worth it to publicize the plight of Gazans.

“We made some impact,” said Mr. Meyns.

He would, he said, “probably” join another flotilla.

Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting from Rehovot, Israel, and Laura Chung from Sydney, Australia.