ISTANBUL
A British activist participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla accused Israel of mistreating flotilla participants and highlighted ongoing abuses against Palestinians.
A plane carrying activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla, who were attacked and detained by Israel in international waters, landed at the Istanbul Airport on Saturday afternoon.
The plane, which departed from Ramon Airport in Eilat, Israel, arrived at the airport at 3.50 pm local time (1250 GMT).
As many as 137 people from the humanitarian flotilla, including 36 Turkish and 23 Malaysian citizens, arrived by the flight.
One of the activists, Kieran Andrieu, whose father is Palestinian, told Anadolu he joined the mission because “there is no greater issue facing humanity right now than the genocide in Gaza and the kind of persecution that Israel subjects Palestinians to every single day.”
“Israel tried to put us in prisoner clothes, but we were not prisoners; we were captains, we were hostages,” Andrieu said. “That’s what Israel does to Palestinians every single day.”
Andrieu described harsh conditions in Israeli captivity, including denial of essential medicine.
“Yesterday night we were shouting that possibly someone was having a heart attack. They didn’t come. They didn’t care. They gave us food that was infested with insects. They subjected some people to torture.”
“If this is how Israel behaves towards Europeans, you can only imagine how it treats Palestinians every single day,” he added.