Gaza flotilla activists accuse Israel of degrading treatment

Organizers of the Gaza aid flotilla halted by Israeli forces last week said on Monday that participants had been subjected to physical and verbal abuse.

Lubna Tuma, a lawyer acting for the Global Sumud Flotilla, told a press conference broadcast on Instagram that participants had alleged being held with their hands tied behind their backs under the scorching sun.

Some had been forced to kneel, while being insulted and humiliated, with women particular targets of verbal humiliation. One woman had reported being kicked in the head.

The Israeli Navy intercepted 42 boats carrying aid supplies for the Gaza Strip in the Mediterranean on Friday. Over 400 crew members from dozens of countries were taken into custody in a case that made global headlines. They included Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau.

Israeli has deported many of the activists, with 150 still held, 40 of them on hunger strike, according to Tuma. Some were even refusing water in protest at the denial of medical treatment, she said.

Many of them currently had no legal support, she said.

Several of the 21 Spanish activists who arrived in Madrid on Sunday also reported being mistreated and humiliated.

Colau said she had been shouted at and insulted and denied food and water. The air conditioning had been turned off at night to prevent sleep, she said.

Flotilla participant Rafael Borrego said activists had been hit, dragged over the ground and locked in cages, with medical assistance denied, even to one person in urgent need of insulin. Contact with lawyers, family and consular officials had also been denied, he said.

Spanish journalist Néstor Prieto said requests for medical assistance had been met with the response that "they had no doctors for animals."

Irregularities around their deportation included signed documents in the activists' names stating that they had entered Israeli illegally. Tuma noted that the activists had been detained in international waters and had not in fact entered Israel.

The German Foreign Office said earlier on Monday that 14 German nationals were being held.

Under Israeli law, the 14 detained protesters must be brought before a judge within 96 hours.

"We assume that they will be deported to Germany very, very soon afterwards," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Israel's Foreign Ministry said 171 other activists were deported on Monday "from Israel to Greece and Slovakia."

The ministry published photos of Swedish activist Thunberg at an airport in Israel.

According to a newspaper report, Thunberg complained about harsh treatment and a lack of water while in Israeli custody.

The German Foreign Office said there was no evidence that the allegations were true. According to the spokesman, a German diplomat personally visited the 14 nationals at the Ketziot prison in the Negev desert on Friday and Sunday.