“We Felt Like Prisoners of a Barbaric Regime”: Flotilla Activists Expose Horrors of Israeli Detention | The National
October 7, 2025
They sailed with hope.
They returned with horror.
Flotilla activists from Italy, Kuwait, Argentina, and Switzerland describe the nightmare inside Israeli detention.
Eyes covered. Hands bound. Humiliated.
Treated like criminals for delivering aid and truth.
“We felt like prisoners of a barbaric regime.”
This is what Israel calls ‘security’.
This is what the West keeps funding.
Their courage exposes what the world refuses to see.
#FreePalestine #Gaza #GlobalFlotilla #StopGenocide #IsraeliCrimes #HumanRights #Solidarity #JusticeForGaza
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English Script:
Lorenzo Agostino: Greta Thunberg, a brave woman, was only 22 years old. She was humiliated and wrapped in an Israeli flag and exhibited like a trophy. I had the feeling of being in a really barbaric place, and I really hope that this barbarism might be over soon.
Mohamad Jamal: Some of the people got beaten, but a lot of swear words, a lot of, it seems that they were under a lot of pressure from the world. So the people in the world made them behave better than what they were planning to behave, because they had so much rage and anger against us. But they couldn’t do anything because of the people. The people protected us by demonstrating and keeping their eyes on us.
After two days in Israeli custody, the flotilla participants were deported on a special flight to Istanbul.
Nicolas Calabrese: They kidnaped us and threatened us with weapons. We had no weapons. We did not hide our faces. They were with weapons. They hid their faces, they were with weapons. They carry us to a place that we didn’t want to be. And they treat us very bad, like hitting us and putting our head down and pushing us. They didn’t let us speak with our partners to know what is happening, to know where the other partners of other boats.
Tabea Zaug : They made jokes about us and they tried to harass us. They made us lie down in the sun with our heads to the ground, kneeling for one hour, just to harass us and to make us feel bad. They treated us like terrorists, actually.
