By Yemna Selmi and Rania Abu Shamala
TUNIS, Tunisia / ISTANBUL (AA) - Ten Tunisian activists arrived in the capital Tunis on Sunday after being released from Israeli detention.
The ten were among 25 Tunisian activists detained by Israel following an attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla, an international aid convoy heading to Gaza to break Israel’s illegal blockade on the enclave.
Hundreds of people waving Palestinian and Tunisian flags gathered at Tunis-Carthage International Airport to welcome the freed activists, according to an Anadolu reporter.
The freed activists told local media that the flotilla participants, including Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg, were subjected to harsh treatment in Israeli custody.
“When we confronted the (Israeli) occupation soldiers, we discovered they were merely a scarecrow -- Israel is weaker than a spider’s web,” said Mohamed Ali Mohieddine, one of the freed activists and captain of the vessel Amsterdam.
“Israel is a scarecrow with massive equipment and media propaganda, but its human element is extremely cowardly. They have human features, hands and legs, but not a shred of humanity.”
Mohieddine, visibly moved, spoke about messages written by Palestinian prisoners in the detention cells where the activists were held.
“Those messages were heartbreaking,” he said. “We have been too late for them, people are tortured and killed. Among what we saw were names and dates of prisoners, apparently erased by Israelis. The messages were written in blood and barely legible.”
He also said that many of the activists who accompanied him were beaten by Israeli forces.
Several participants recently released from Israeli custody confirmed that Tunisian activists were subjected to violent assaults inside Israeli detention centers, including Mouheb Snoussi, Wael Naouar, and Yassine Gaidi.
They said detainees from North African countries, especially Tunisians, faced particularly harsh and inhumane treatment, according to earlier statements by the Maghreb Sumud Flotilla’s official page.
The flotilla added that 15 Tunisian activists remain in Israeli custody and have been on a hunger strike since Thursday night in protest of the abuses and harsh prison conditions.
Israeli naval forces attacked and seized vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla late Wednesday and detained more than 470 activists from over 50 countries. The flotilla had been attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenge Israel’s blockade of the enclave.
Israel has maintained the blockade of Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for almost 18 years.
Since October 2023, Israeli bombardments have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable, with the blockade also pushing Gaza to famine.