‘Abuse’ of Gaza flotilla activists adds to Israel’s increasingly bad optics

Over the weekend as South African and other foreign Gaza flotilla activists were released from several days in Israeli detention, after being abducted off boats as they tried to break Israel’s crippling siege on Gaza, they collectively accused Israel of brutal treatment while incarcerated.

The Global Sumud flotilla, comprising more than 400 people from 44 countries aboard 50 vessels, was intercepted by Israeli special forces last Monday in international waters about 400km off the coast of Israel as they sought to deliver food and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Qutb Hendricks, Ebrahim Peters, Hajar Kagiso Al-Tha’irah Ahjum Mathee, former ambassador Faizel Moosa, Mogamed Faeek Ariefdien and Yusuf Rahman arrived home last Saturday and gave a press conference at OR Tambo International Airport.

Moosa, an anti-apartheid activist, said the treatment they received under Israeli detention was the worst he had ever experienced.

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“Having experienced detention under the apartheid regime during the struggle, this was far worse. It just goes to show that this is what Palestinians go through on a daily basis,” Moosa said.

Rahman said that when they had asked for medication they were poked in the areas where they had pain, such as the ribs.

“Food, unfit for human consumption, was thrown to us from above, we were denied access to toilets for many hours and after we protested we were shot at with rubber bullets. For them it seemed so normal because it is normal and it’s something they do every day, not to us but to the Palestinians,” said Rahman.

Peters said an Israeli soldier, on finding out he was South African, asked him about the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case that South Africa filed against Israel and then hit him in the ribs.

A Canadian activist says he was beaten and stabbed, CBC news reported, while an Australian doctor says they were treated worse than animals, The Guardian reported.

Dr Margaret Connolly, the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly and one of 14 Irish activists, said they weren’t provided with sufficient toiletries and medical supplies.

Others reported severe beatings, numerous broken bones and electric shocks, with some subsequently admitted to hospital.

Israel’s blockade of the coastal territories is deemed collective punishment of the coastal territory’s civilian population. This is deemed illegal under international law, according to the Hague Convention, the International Committee of the Red Cross as outlined in article 33 of the Geneva Convention, and confirmed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, among others, including a statement by 16 international human rights organisations.

The Israeli authorities, however, denied the accusations and said they had handled the flotilla with “sensitivity”.

Prior to the release of the activists a video showing Israel Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir humiliating the detainees made international headlines, with numerous capitals condemning their treatment and a number calling in Israeli diplomatic staff for questioning.

Ben Gvir has been banned from entering a number of countries and he has a history of provocative videos and calls to racism.

While several Israeli ministers expressed outrage over his behaviour, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben Gvir was convicted years ago of belonging to a terrorist organisation Kach, defined as racist and banned by the Israeli authorities. In fact Netanyahu actively courted him to strengthen his coalition government while other Israeli ministers have similar views to Ben Gvir.

Israel’s negative optics are beginning to be compounded by several other reports and investigations highlighting the abuse of Palestinian prisoners, involving sexual abuse, detainees dying in detention and being starved.

Netanyahu recently threatened to sue the New York Times, a paper hitherto very supportive of Israel in its coverage, after its columnist Nicholas Kristof, a two-times Pulitzer Prize winner and a veteran human rights reporter, wrote a piece on the deliberate and systematic sexual abuse of Palestinan prisoners in Israeli detention, after extensive interviews and research.

In response to Israeli government anger, the paper released a statement saying “that Kristoff’s reporting was rigorously fact-checked before publication to ensure that every testimony and anecdote he personally reported was supported by independent sources. We reviewed the factual challenges that readers and others raised… Editors found no errors.”

Kristof’s piece repeated previous accusations of abuse reported by Save The Children, Israeli rights group B’Tselem and a recent report by Alice Jill Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

“Emergency measures introduced after 7 October 2023 exposed Palestinian detainees to torture, potentially unlawful deaths, incommunicado detention, and degrading conditions,” Edwards said.

“It is my view that the number and cruelty of allegations compiled portray gross disregard by Israel of its duty to treat all detainees humanely and without discrimination, and this has encouraged, tolerated and condoned torture and ill-treatment, at times with support at ministerial and functional levels,” the expert said.

A 2024 video that went viral internationally and in Israel appeared to show the sexual abuse and rape of a Palestinian detainee in the Sde Teiman prison by a group of Israeli soldiers, CNN reported. The detainee was subsequently admitted to hospital with severe internal injuries, including anal tearing and a ruptured bowel.

However, although some of the soldiers were arrested, they were recently released because accountability for Israeli settlers and soldiers carrying out abuses against Palestinians is extremely low, according to B’Tselem.

“This decision (to release the soldiers) marks yet another unconscionable chapter in the Israeli legal system’s long-standing history of granting impunity to perpetrators of grave crimes against Palestinians,” said Amnesty International’s senior director for research, advocacy and policy, Erika Guevara Rosas.

“This, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s welcoming of the decision, illustrate the Israeli system’s ‘unwillingness or inability’ to prosecute crimes under international law, stressing the urgent need for international justice as the only remaining avenue for Palestinians,” she added.

In another damning report by Israel Physicians for Human Rights, released towards the end of 2025, the organisation said their report revealed that over the past two years, up to August 2025, at least 94 Palestinians had died in Israeli detention facilities, many as a result of beatings, torture and denial of medical treatment.

Israel has already faced negative attention for the ICJ case against it over genocide – an accusation supported by most genocide scholars and human rights organisations – as well as the International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued against Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Furthermore, there are unconfirmed reports emerging, including from CNN and the Israeli daily Haaretz, that the ICC may be seeking further arrest warrants against other Israeli ministers.

As of May 2026, the European Union has also approved sanctions targeting individual Israeli settlers and organisations over their violence in the West Bank against Palestinians.

Meanwhile, some Israeli government-accredited foreign journalists who have been reporting from the country for years are now finding themselves banned from entering the country, as a special police unit monitors their activity, The Middle East Eye and Haaretz reported.

And despite Israel recently quintupling its PR budget to $730-million, the Times of Israel reported, it appears the negative optics are not going away anytime soon. DM