By Mohammad Sio
ISTANBUL (AA) - Activists detained after Israel attacked the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla vessels reported being mistreated in Israeli custody, Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said on Saturday.
Adalah lawyers met about 80 participants from the aid mission during tribunal hearings reviewing their detention orders. The group said around 200 hearings were held late Thursday night and into Friday morning without any prior notice to Adalah’s lawyers and without legal defenders present for the detainees.
Hearings were continuing Saturday at Ktziot Prison, where hundreds of flotilla participants are being held.
According to Adalah, detainees reported various forms of mistreatment and aggression by prison guards. Some said they had not received food since their interception, their medications were being withheld without alternatives provided, and they lacked access to clean drinking water, describing the available supply as unsafe or of poor quality.
While Adalah said it had not received any official notification regarding deportations, the group confirmed that a Turkish plane departed earlier Saturday carrying 137 activists from multiple countries, including Türkiye, Italy, the US, UK, Kuwait, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Libya, Jordan, Switzerland, Bahrain, and Malaysia.
Israeli naval forces attacked and seized vessels of the flotilla on Thursday 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 on Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for almost 18 years.
Since October 2023, Israeli bombardments have killed more than 66,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it all but uninhabitable.