TUNIS, Tunisia / ISTANBUL

Tunisian activist Mohamed Ali Mohieddine recounted mistreatment and abuses by Israeli forces after being arrested from an international aid flotilla sailing to the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Speaking to local media at Tunis-Carthage International Airport late Sunday, Mohieddine said activists of the Global Sumud Flotilla were treated inhumanely by Israeli forces.

“They fed us a small piece of bread in the morning and another small piece later. The water was from the sewage,” said Mohieddine, the captain of the Amsterdam vessel, describing the conditions as degrading.

Mohieddine added that he was assaulted after telling soldiers that the flotilla would continue to sail to Gaza “in waves.”

A group of 10 Tunisian activists, out of 25 who participated in the flotilla, arrived at Tunis–Carthage Airport on Sunday after their deportation from Israel. Hundreds gathered to welcome them with flowers, chants, applause, and Tunisian and Palestinian flags, according to an Anadolu correspondent.

Mohieddine mocked the Israeli soldiers, describing them as “weak and unfit for maritime operations.”

“The Zionist (Israeli) entity is weaker than a spider’s web. I saw their soldiers vomiting on the ship; they didn’t even know how to operate the engine.”

He recounted that when an alarm went off aboard the ship, “one Israeli soldier panicked, and another urinated from fear.”

Israeli naval forces attacked and seized vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla late Wednesday and detained more than 470 activists from over 50 countries. The flotilla had been attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenge Israel’s blockade of the enclave.

Israel has maintained the blockade of Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for almost 18 years.

Since October 2023, Israeli bombardments have killed more than 67,100 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable, with the blockade also pushing Gaza to famine.