Global Sumud Flotilla Activists Under Israeli Detention Declare Hunger Strike
Global Sumud Flotilla activists who have been detained by the Israeli authorities declared a hunger strike. Activists under Israeli detention include French politician Emma Fourreau, Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, and TRT journalist Sumeyya Sena Polat.
While 137 siezed at sea arrived in Istanbul after trying to deliver aid to besieged Gaza, others remain in detention, protesting via hunger strikes.
As famine spreads and 95 percent of farmland in Gaza has been destroyed, dozens of Global Sumud Flotilla volunteers remain imprisoned and are refused to be fed by the same Israeli regime that has enforced starvation in Palestine.
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Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said, “They (Flotilla activists) should feel what the conditions in Ketziot Prison are like and think twice before approaching Israel again. That’s how it works.”
In Gaza, starvation is not a tragedy, but rather a policy. Since October 2023, Israel has pursued a campaign of total starvation – cutting off food, water, electricity, and fuel, while targeting the fields, farmers, and aid convoys.
Since imposing its illegal siege in 2007, Israel has tightly controlled the entry of food, medicine, and essential goods to the enclave.
A Turkish activist described the abuse against the climate campaigner Greta Thunberg during Israel’s raid on the Global Sumud Flotilla. “They dragged Greta by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others”, the flotilla participant told Turkish agency.
Israeli forces illegally intercepted the boats in international waters, detained those on board, and later began to deport them to their countries of origin.
Spain had been one of the largest national contingents in the flotilla, with dozens of participants, including well-known activists and community leaders.
