Bangladeshi photographer and rights activist Shahidul Alam on Saturday said that he and the other Gaza flotilla participants were subjected to various forms of torture, mainly psychological ones, by the Israeli defence forces after being detained by the forces on their journey to Gaza.
Shahidul, who was released by the Israeli authorities on October 10, returned to Dhaka in a Turkish Airways flight on Saturday morning from Istanbul of Turkey. Shahidul along with other pro-Palestinian activists made the journey to break the Israeli blockade and seize of Gaza.
鈥榃e were subjected to various forms of torture. I would say we mainly face psychological torture,鈥� he said at a press conference at Drik Picture Library, Bangladesh, an independent media organisation founded by Shahidul himself.
鈥楾he most painful moment for me was when they threw my passport on the ground multiple times,鈥� he said.
The right activist said that about 50 members of the Israeli defence forces, mostly arriving by helicopter, and armed with various types of weapons, including sniper bullets and jackets, intercepted the Gaza flotilla vessel Conscience at sea at about 5:30am (local time) on October 8.
He said that there were 92 people on the vessel, most of them journalists and healthcare workers.
According to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an international network of pro-Palestinian activist groups, a total of 145 volunteers from 30 countries were 鈥榠llegally abducted鈥� by the Israeli military from the Conscience and eight Thousand Madleens sailboats and were later transferred to Ketziot Prison in Israel鈥檚 Negev desert.
Shahidul said that after detention, the Israeli soldiers jabbed two Turkish crew members with the barrels of their machine guns when they were speaking to each other in English.
After being taken off the ship and brought to dry land, their hands were tied behind their backs, and they were forced to kneel with their heads down for about two hours in a place where Israeli forces had reportedly urinated beforehand.
He mentioned that a Tunisian man named Ali, who was wearing a shirt bearing the Palestinian flag, was ordered to take it off.聽 鈥榃hen Ali refused to do that, the soldiers attacked him,鈥� he said.
In jail, Shahidul said, he met another Bangladeshi named Liakat from Sylhet, who told him that Israeli forces had accused him of being a Hamas agent and threatened to shoot him.
They were transported to prison by bus, where the detainees were forced to sleep on steel beds that made a terrible noise whenever someone moved, he said, adding that the toilet conditions were deplorable.
He mentioned that in jail, members of Israeli forces would suddenly enter the cell with machine guns late at night, shouting and giving orders such as to stand up, in an attempt to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
The rights activist said that most of the detainees were on a hunger strike during their two-and-a-half-day detention. A few, who could not observe the hunger strike due to health reasons, were given just a single plate of food during this period, he said.
Shahidul said that they were asked to sign a waiver acknowledging they had attempted to breach Israel鈥檚 blockade illegally before being deported, but he refused to sign that.
鈥業 only signed a paper stating that I would like to be deported within 72 hours as per Israeli law,鈥� he said.
He added that most of the detainees were released, but some with dual citizenship 鈥� American and Israeli 鈥� were kept in prison.
He also described the Israeli forces as 鈥榯hieves,鈥� saying that they returned only $1,300 of the $1,600 he had handed over to them and did not return any of the belongings the detainees had handed over to the forces during detention.
He also expressed his gratitude towards Bangladesh interim government chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus for his bold statement of solidarity and support.
Replying to a question about the next step, he said that they had decided to form an international network of activists and would try to go to Gaza again, 鈥榯his time with a thousand ships.鈥�
According to a Freedom Flotilla Coalition press release issued on September 30, the launch of Conscience followed the departure of 10 boats that had set sail for Gaza on September 25 and September 27, organised jointly by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thousand Madleens.
Between October 2 and 3, the Israeli occupying forces intercepted the 鈥楪lobal Sumud Flotilla,鈥� which was carrying humanitarian assistance for the people of Gaza, and detained more than 450 people, including climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.
Later, many of them were released.
Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement on October 9 through the intervention of US president Donald Trump, who credited Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey for their initiatives to end the prolonged conflict between Israel and Hamas.
