‘Most relentlessly cruel’: Gaza flotilla activists tell harrowing accounts of abuse in Israeli custody

New Zealand activist Mousa Taher, who was part of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud humanitarian aid flotilla, which was attacked and intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters, said he was subjected to humiliating treatment and torture after being detained. Activists from the flotilla spoke to Anadolu after arriving at Istanbul Airport aboard three Turkish Airlines flights. Taher said that after previously being detained by Israeli forces in Greece, he travelled first to Istanbul and then to Marmaris before once again setting sail toward Gaza. “The Israeli occupation forces really tortured me this time,” he said. Pointing to injuries on his face and leg, Taher said Israeli soldiers recognised him and addressed him by name because it was his second attempt to join the flotilla. He said that when Israeli forces intercepted the boat he had joined for the second time, they forced him and another activist to strip on board, while other passengers were not subjected to the same treatment. New Zealand activist Mousa Taher speaks to media in Istanbul. — Anadolu Agency Taher added that Israeli soldiers bound him so tightly with plastic zip ties that he cried and pleaded with them to stop, but they instead tightened the restraints further while stepping on his hand. “Then he put his boot on my face and took a picture like he had captured an animal,” he said. Taher said the Israeli soldier who tortured him asked whether he hated him. “I told him, ‘No. I hope for you to be guided. I want goodness for you,’ even while he was torturing me,” he said. He said he was later transferred to a prison-like ship, where he lost consciousness after being severely beaten. “They punched me and punched me. I woke up and I didn’t know where I was or what was happening,” he said. He added that Israeli soldiers continued kicking and beating him before conditions eased slightly inside the prison facility. “They humiliated us. They want us to feel small. They made us crawl on the ground just