On Wednesday, May 20, 2026, Israeli navy troops intercepted two ships in international waters: the Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessel and the Global Sumud Flotilla, which were carrying roughly 430 international activists seeking to provide humanitarian relief to Gaza. The activists were taken to Ashdod Port, zip-tied and forced to kneel in rows on the ground before being detained at Ktziot Prison in southern Israel. By Thursday, most had been deported to Turkey.
While they were kneeling on the ground at the port, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir came, filmed himself taunting them, and publicly shared the video. He urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to imprison the activists alongside terrorists. Netanyahu rebuked him. He also justified the interceptions.
Image 1: A live stream from the Global Sumud Flotilla showed armed commandos boarding a boat
This is the same Itamar Ben-Gvir who was photographed celebrating with champagne in the Knesset chamber on March 30, 2026, after Israel passed a law making execution by hanging the default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts, with a 96% conviction rate based primarily on confessions extracted under duress. This is the same man. The same system.
This is not a coincidence. It is a pattern
What happened in detention
Italian journalist Alessandro Mantovani, one of several activists separated from the rest and confined in what he described as a shipping container, claims he was beaten upon arrival. “They kicked me in the legs and punched me in the face,” he told journalists. He described the container as “a place of terror.” Dario Carotenuto, an Italian MP, said that Israeli troops pointed rifles at activists inside the detention center and described the experience as “the longest seconds of his life.”
Italian activist Cesare Tofani stated at Rome’s airport upon his return: “We were treated terribly. From the army, we moved on to the police. There was harassment.” Yassine Lafram, head of the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, told reporters that “they even treated us violently, pointing weapons at us.”
Portuguese activists who returned home experienced denials of medical care, legal access, and communication with family. Some detained activists went on hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinians still under siege in Gaza.
Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which represented the detained activists, stated that Israel was “employing a criminal policy of abuse and humiliation against activists seeking to confront Israel’s ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people,” and that it followed “a pattern of ill treatment against activists in previous flotilla missions, for which Israel faced zero accountability.”The Israeli Prison Service denied all charges of physical abuse. Ben-Gvir’s footage of the kneeling detainees is still publicly available.
Image 2: Activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla disembark a plane upon arriving at Istanbul Airport, in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, May 21, 2026. © Emrah Gurel, AP
This is a disability justice story
CripJustice has written extensively about what happens when state take custody of people and deny medical care. Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir, an imam with heart failure, filed an emergency court motion three days before he died in ICE custody after being refused medical attention. Chaofeng Ge died in a shower stall five days after being sent to a Pennsylvania ICE facility because no one would communicate with him in his own language. Nhon Ngoc Nguyen, a dementia patient, was moved between hospitals and detention until his death.
The withholding of medications from flotilla detainees follows the same pattern, compressed into 48 hours rather than months. When the state takes custody of people and refuses them their medications, this is not a simple procedural error. It’s medical incarceration. It is the most concrete expression of state authority over bodies: you have my medicine, but you refuse to give it to me.
The detention of the flotilla activists reveals something about Israeli detention that is directly relevant to our Palestinian Prisoner Day post and Ahmad Manasra entry. The UN human rights office stated that the activists’ arrest in international seas seemed illegal. 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners face the same system of arbitrary imprisonment, denial of medical care, and physical abuse in containers and processing centers, not for 48 hours, but for months, years, and decades.
The international outcry over the flotilla activists’ treatment is both appropriate and welcome. The Irish Taoiseach urged the European Council to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, and Indonesia all condemned Israel’s actions.
That outrage is something. It should apply to those who are not deported within 48 hours. It should apply to the 10,000 Palestinians now in Israeli custody, including the 3,498 detained without trial under administrative detention orders. It should apply to minors in military court. It should include Dr. Medhat Abu Tabanja, the chief of the ICU at the Indonesian Hospital, who has been kept in Israeli custody for 897 days without a publicly stated charge.
Ben-Gvir and the politics of cruelty
Ben-Gvir’s decision to video himself mocking kneeling bound inmates and share it publicly was not a lapse in judgment. This is an intentional political act. He went to the port especially to perform cruelty for a domestic political audience, prior to early elections in Israel. His colleague, transport minister Miri Regev, also made campaign-style videos at the port. Netanyahu criticized Ben-Gvir’s actions while defending the interception itself, allowing him to separate himself from the optics while supporting the substance.
This is the man who championed the death penalty law. This is the man who described the acquittal of the police who killed autistic Palestinian Eyad al-Hallaq as a moment worthy of “a hug and full support.” This is the man whose political brand includes the use of state violence against Palestinian and pro-Palestinian groups.
The flotilla activists were released and deported within 48 hours, due mostly to their nationality and the diplomatic pressure their countries could exert. That distinguishes them from Ahmad Manasra, who was seized at the age of 13 and kept for nine and a half years. That is the difference between them and the other 10,000 people inside.
Image 3: Ahmad Manasra, 13, escorted by Israeli prison guards during his court proceedings, 2015. He was held for nine and a half years. Photo: WAFA/Addameer.
What accountability requires
According to the UN human rights office, “It is not a crime to show solidarity and bring humanitarian assistance to the people who are in dire need in Gaza.” It advocated for an investigation and accountability for any mistreatment.
CripJustice identifies the institutions that cause disability, deny medical treatment, and exploit bodies as political instruments. The Israeli imprisonment system accomplishes all three, holding foreign activists for 48 hours and Palestinian political prisoners for decades. The medicine withheld from a Portuguese activist at Ashdod Port and the schizophrenic medication withheld from Ahmad Manasra in solitary prison are both the result of the same system.
The world is watching the flotilla story because the activists have passports that open diplomatic doors. The 10,000 people in Israeli detention do not have that. They need the same outrage, sustained, directed at the same system, for as long as it takes.
Image 4: People take part in a general strike in Naples on October 3, 2025 to protest after the Global Sumud Flotilla was boarded on the open sea by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on October 1, 2025. Photo by Anadolu Images.
Sources
Israel deports hundreds of Gaza flotilla activists after international backlash — OPB, May 21, 2026
More Gaza flotilla activists allege mistreatment in Israeli detention — Al Jazeera, October 5, 2025
Aid Flotilla Detainees Face Deportation as Protests Mount — Al Jazeera Liberties, October 6, 2025
