ISTANBUL
Flight to Türkiye after getting freed from detention was the "end of a nightmare," said an Italian activist who was aboard the Israeli-seized Global Sumud Flotilla.
Being part of the flotilla to break the Gaza siege "was the best thing I could do for the Palestinian people and also for my country," Tommaso Bortolazzi, who was the captain of Maria Cristina, one of the more than 40 boats of the flotilla, told Anadolu after arriving in Istanbul on Saturday.
The last days in prison were "very hard," Bortolazzi said, adding that his companions were from Türkiye.
Noting the Israeli soldiers' intervention when his companions were praying, he said he "felt the need to oppose" this.
It is "incredible" to see the appreciation received upon arrival in Istanbul, he said, thanking Türkiye.
A plane carrying activists from various nations of the Global Sumud Flotilla, who were attacked and detained by Israel in international waters, landed at the Istanbul Airport on Saturday afternoon.
The flotilla, en route to break the Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, approached Gaza waters on the evening of Oct 1. It was attacked by the Israeli army, which illegally seized dozens of boats and ships and detained hundreds of passengers.
Israel has maintained strict control over Gaza’s airspace and territorial waters since 2007, and restricted the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza. The blockade intensified after its war on the enclave in October 2023.