‘There were rapes, particularly with firearms’: captured by the Israeli army aboard a flotilla to Gaza, a Liège activist testifies to serious violence – RTBF Actus

The Liège activist denounces a scenario of violence. The screams, the blows, everything was organized to be heard by the other inmates. “Before entering the enclosure, everyone heard the screams, the others being assaulted, being hit, bouncing in the container and falling to the ground, and that was terrible.“. Furthermore, the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, himself published on his Telegram account a video where we see him in these cargo ships, ironizing the situation and openly taunting the arrested activists. Behind him, we can hear the cries activists who are kneeling with their hands tied and theretêteÂagainst the ground. For the representatives of the flotilla, “cThis confidence stems from the total impunity they enjoy, thanks to the silence of world leaders“.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the behavior of his National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, who released a video of him with activists of the “flotilla for Gaza“kneeling after being placed in detention.”Israel has the full right to prevent provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters from entering our territorial waters and reaching Gaza“, he declared in a press release. “However, Minister Ben Gvir’s treatment of the flotilla activists is not in line with Israeli values ​​and standards“.

One of the guards threatened us, putting his gun to my comrade’s head.

Following this, the activists were transferred to Ktziot prison, in Israel. Aude Gaspar testifies to the violence she personally suffered there. “All along we had collars as handcuffs, tightened until they anchored themselves in our flesh. I was pulled by my hair, made to kneel and my head pressed to the ground“. The scariest moment for her remains an episode where one of the guards directly threatens them with a weapon which he places on the tea of an inmate, before openly expressing his desire to “kill someone today“.