Activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla have been released from Israel after being intercepted on the way to Gaza. The Global Sumud Flotilla organisation has launched several aid missions to Gaza, including one last year which drew international attention to the project after Greta Thunberg joined.
Earlier this week Israeli forces intercepted dozens of Gaza-bound vessels and detained more than 400 people in international waters. Israel’s treatment of activists part of the Flotilla have been widely condemned but reports of aggressive treatment have only increased.
Israel first launched its maritime blockade of Gaza in 2007 after Hamas’s takeover of the Strip. This prohibits access to Gaza by commercial ships, only allowing Palestinian fishing vessels to operate in a 6 nautical-mile fishing zone, with no access to foreign ports. Trade to Gaza has since flowed through the Israeli port of Ashdod, as well as smaller ports in both Israel and Egypt.
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza in 2023, border crossings have largely been closed, preventing the flow of food and humanitarian supplies into the Strip. The Global Sumud Flotilla launched its inaugural mission to Gaza in Summer 2025, aiming to deliver aid to Palestinian civilians and draw international attention to the ongoing conflict and genocide.
The newly elected President of Ireland Catherine Connolly’s sister Margaret was part of this year’s flotilla and has been detained by Israel. During an interview with reporters during a visit to the United Kingdom, the Irish president said she is “very worried about her”.
Recently released activists have described inhumane treatment whilst in Israeli prisons, with some claiming they were beaten and physiological abused. The most damning claims are the 15 alleged sexual assaults of activists whilst in Israeli detention. Sexual abuse incidents though under-reported are commonplace for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons in what the United Nations has described as “the systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other gender-based violence by the Israeli Security Forces”.
In 2025, the United Nations released an independent report on the use of gender and sexual-based violence on Palestinians by Israeli forces since October 2023. This report concluded “that these and other forms of sexualized torture, including rape and violence targeting the genitals, are committed with either explicit orders or an implicit encouragement by the top civilian and military leadership”.
French activist Meriem Hadjal told journalists she was “subjected to sexual violence and groping”, whilst detained in Israel.
These allegations of abuse paired with the widely circulated video of Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir disrespectfully addressing activists has drawn international condemnation of Israel’s treatment of detainees. However, while many nations have officially recognised the Palestinian State since 2023, there appears to be very little motivation to stabilise the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Flotilla activists continue to highlight the treatment of Palestinians, upon his release British activist Richard Johan Anderson told reporters: “We’ve been beaten, tortured, systematically dehumanised, and[…]we have just had a little taste of what the Palestinians go through every day.”