An Italian activist who was a part of the Gaza support flotilla and subsequently detained by Israel has described allegations of being mistreated and humiliated whereas in Israeli custody, with little entry to authorized help.
Lorenzo D’Agostino is certainly one of a variety of flotilla participants deported by Israel who’ve claimed they have been handled poorly whereas they have been detained. Israel has strongly denied allegations of mistreating the group.
In an interview with NCS, D’Agostino described being pressured to sit down or kneel on concrete in entrance of an Israeli flag for hours at a time, being left in chilly temperatures with little clothes, having his belongings seized, mocked and destroyed and having his wrists certain tightly.
“We were shocked by the level of humiliation and gratuitous cruelty that these people used on us,” he stated.
“The way we were treated was … pushing the mistreatment and the humiliation to the limit that they could afford,” D’Agostino stated. He stated that he believes that as a result of he’s from Italy – a conventional ally of Israel – Israeli guards “knew that they couldn’t harm us physically” or they might face backlash.
“People coming from countries that are not allied (with Israel) were harmed physically,” he stated. “I was sharing my cell with a Turkish citizen (another activist) whose arm was broken and he was left without painkillers for two days.”
In a social media post on Sunday, Israel’s overseas ministry stated that claims relating to the mistreatment of the activists are “brazen lies,” and that “all the detainees’ legal rights are fully upheld.”
D’Agostino is certainly one of some 450 activists, including climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, who was arrested final week aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, a coalition of greater than 40 humanitarian support vessels carrying meals, water and medication in direction of Gaza. Those detained between Wednesday and Friday have been dropped at Israel, the place many stay in jail.
The flotilla, which set sail in late August and September, was the most recent try by activists to interrupt the years lengthy Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory by sea. Israel claims that the blockade is authorized and has known as the flotilla a provocation.
Thunberg, one of the distinguished figures onboard the flotilla, was allegedly pressured to kneel on concrete in entrance of an Israeli flag, and was always surrounded by different Israeli flags whereas in custody, D’Agostino stated.
Police and troopers would typically take photos of her with the flags, he added. This claim was repeated by Lubna Tuma, a authorized counsel for the Adalah Legal Centre representing the activists, who stated that Thunberg, alongside one different detainee, was “separated from the others and forced to have pictures with the Israeli flag as an act of humiliation.”
On Monday afternoon, Israel’s overseas ministry stated that Thunberg had additionally been deported alongside 170 different flotilla contributors. Thunberg has not commented since her launch.
While D’Agostino was in custody, he stated Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir paid a go to to the flotilla contributors, the place he known as them “terrorists” and “supporters of the killers,” video confirmed.
The border guards “felt compelled to be especially cruel in front of their minister,” D’Agostino stated, saying that his palms have been certain so tightly when Ben Gvir was visiting that it felt just like the blood circulation to them was practically lower off.
The similar day, Ben Gvir criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for deporting the flotilla activists.
“The Prime Minister’s decision to allow the terror supporters on the flotilla to return to their countries is fundamentally mistaken,” he stated in a put up on X.
“I believe they must be kept here in an Israeli prison for several months, so they can breathe the air of the terrorists’ wing. After all, it cannot be that the Prime Minister keeps sending them back again and again and again to their countries – and this very release is what causes them to return over and over and over,” Ben Gvir continued.
Other deported activists gave comparable accounts of their detentions, in what the lawyer from the Adalah Legal Centre representing the activists known as a “series of violations.” Goretti Sarasibar, who was deported from Tel Aviv on Sunday, instructed Reuters that, after being launched from their cells, the activists have been pressured to look at photos of Hamas’ October 7 assaults on Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages.
“They didn’t give us food all day,” he stated, including: “Now we are super happy eating, as we were starving.”
Dutch activist Marco Tesh recounted being unable to breathe at one level “because they put something to my face and they tied my hands to my back.”
Fellow deportee Rafael Borrego confirmed the handcuff marks on his wrists and described the jail circumstances.
“At any time that any of us called a police officer, we risked that seven or more fully armed people entered to our cell, as they did on mine, pointing us with weapons at our heads, with dogs ready to attack us, and being dragged to the floor,” he instructed Reuters. “This happened on a daily basis.”
In a put up on X Monday, Israel’s overseas ministry once more denied that any of the flotilla contributors had been mistreated in detention.
“All the legal rights of the participants in this PR stunt were and will continue to be fully upheld,” reads the assertion.
“The lies they are spreading are part of their pre-planned fake news campaign,” it stated. “Don’t believe the fake news they are spreading.”