ISTANBUL

A German activist and organizer of the Global Sumud Flotilla said that she and others on board the fleet of ships were there "because there is a genocide" in Gaza.

"We've gone through torture and we’ve been kidnapped in international waters and brought into the Zionist entity against our will," said Yasemin Acar as Israel attacked the flotilla and seized its participants.

During their prison time, they were deprived of food and sleep, she added, noting that the events unfolding in Gaza are a "genocide that our countries financially, morally and with weapons are supporting."

Describing their imprisonment as "brutal," Acar stressed that they were robbed of all their rights.

"If we want to talk about our imprisonment and why we were there, we always have to recognize that there is a genocide happening, there is an ethnic cleansing happening.

"There are political prisoners held by Israel. The prison cells that we were in were filled with messages from Palestinian prisoners. And this is what we have to remember and we have to continue to advocate,” she said.

Regarding the recent ceasefire plan proposed by US President Donald Trump, she said: “I don’t think that war criminals have the privilege to speak of peace."

“Palestinians are looking for justice and liberation, and this is what the whole world is fighting for,” she said, reiterating that they will continue their efforts.

The flotilla, en route to break an Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, approached the enclave’s waters on the evening of Oct. 1.

The Israeli army attacked the flotilla, illegally seizing dozens of boats and ships and detaining hundreds of their passengers.

It was the largest flotilla to ever set out collectively to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The Israeli military has killed over 67,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023.

The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable and has led to mass displacement, starvation and the proliferation of disease.