A UK-based pro-Palestine activist intercepted by Israeli forces on a flotilla heading to Gaza last week has said she feared for her life as she watched scores of colleagues emerge bleeding and wounded from a shipping container.
Veronica Otero, 41, who lives in London, was on a boat named Holy Blue, one of the first to be boarded by Israeli forces in international waters off Cyprus. She witnessed the arrival of many of the 180 fellow prisoners held for three days and allegedly tortured, and denied consular and medical assistance.
“I remember at some point I actually thought: ‘This is it.’ I just had to accept that I may die,” she told The Observer, adding that one Israeli soldier told them: “Tonight, I want to kill someone. I hope one of you makes a mistake and my hand is shaking.”
Otero, a mother of one who works in higher education, said they were held on a makeshift prison boat surrounded by barbed wire. She witnessed almost all of the other members being processed and said they were taken into a shipping container on the boat. She said she heard screams and saw people emerge bleeding or in states of undress.
“One by one [they] started coming out of that container very injured. They were hurting people and I thought: ‘This is terrible!’ They were being kicked in the ribs and faces.”
She said that medical staff from the boats set up an impromptu field hospital to treat the injuries, which organisers said included 36 fractures, among them broken ribs.
Many men “were unable to walk. They were about to faint, to fall or something”.
The Israeli security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has been roundly condemned by western leaders after posting a video to social media last week mocking activists as they were roughed up, or held in stress positions with their hands in cable ties, while the Israeli national anthem played.
In the footage, Ben-Gvir waves the flag of Israel and shouts: “Welcome to Israel. We are the landlords here.”
The organisers of the Global Sumud flotilla say that many of the 180 prisoners, who have since been released, allege multiple counts of rape, torture and systematic physical and sexual abuse.
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It is understood that diplomats were denied access to the prisoners in breach of the Vienna convention, and the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement were not given access for three days. It is understood that the incident, which led to the Foreign Office summoning the Israeli chargé d’affaires, has worsened the UK’s strained diplomatic relations with Israel, whose prison service denied the allegations in their entirety.
The flotilla was the latest to carry a token amount of aid in an attempt to reach Gaza, where nearly 2 million people remain displaced after Israeli bombardments destroyed homes and civilian infrastructure in the wake of the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023.
Organisers said in a statement that members were kept in stress positions for hours under bright lights, and subjected to humiliating strip searches during which they were mocked and photographed naked. A Frenchman called Adrien Jouan released a photo showing welts and bruising all over his back. A British government source confirmed that Muslim women had their hijabs forcibly removed.
Israeli forces are accused of using stun grenades and rubber bullets, as well as Tasers, on the prisoners.
“They kept shooting at us,” Otero said. “They used something like smoke grenades. They would make a lot of noises – very loud noises
“They were also using water against us. We were wet and cold. We were trying to make sure that the people who just arrived, in shock and being tortured, had warm clothes and we could make them feel warmer”.
A spokesperson for the Israeli prison service said: “The allegations raised are false and entirely without factual basis. All prisoners and detainees are held in accordance with the law, with full regard for their basic rights and under the supervision of professional and trained prison staff.”
They added: “Medical care is provided according to professional medical judgment and in accordance with ministry of health guidelines.”
Photograph by Veronica Otero