Sixteen Irish citizens detained by Israel during the interception of the global sumud flotilla have been released and “are on their journey home”, the Tánaiste Simon Harris has said.
Some of the Irish citizens have told lawyers representing them how they suffered “aggressive treatment and violence” in Israeli custody, including being kicked when trying to sleep, and are now being kept in a notorious desert prison.
In a statement on Monday afternoon, Global Movement to Gaza Éire said the “Irish flotilla participants’ flight has left Tel Aviv and will land in Athens, Greece, today [Monday]. Participants will then travel homeward on three separate flights from Athens to Dublin today and tomorrow.”
The detainees include Caitríona Graham, Sinn Féin Senator Chris Andrews, Colm Byrne, Cormac O’Daly, Diarmuid MacDubhghlais, Donna Schwarz, Louise Heaney, Maureen Almai, Paddy Kelly, Patrick O’Donovan, Sarah Clancy, artist Tadhg Hickey, Tara O’Grady, Tara Sheehy, and Thomas McCune.
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A sixteenth member of the group, Michael Fix, is a dual Irish-US citizen.
The statement said the vessels the activists were aboard as part of the flotilla were “illegally intercepted in international waters” and the people detained were “illegally in one of the most infamous prisons for human rights abuses in Israel”.
The first of three flights home for the activists is expected to land in Dublin at 10.45pm on Monday, with two more following on Tuesday at 3.30pm and early on Wednesday at 1am.
Lawyers from Adalah, a legal centre that defends Palestinians in Israel, have met and represented 10 out of the 16 detained Irish citizens since they were taken from their boats and brought to Israel.
They were detained in Ktzi’ot Prison, a large detention facility usually used for Palestinians, in the Negev desert, though it is unclear whether they are within the main jail or a separate part used for immigration cases.
The details of their alleged treatment were given to Adalah lawyers by Irish detainees while they were in Ashdod port and before their transfer to the prison.
“Some of them reported minor violence, being kicked when trying to sleep, which is something that we’ve seen with a few of them,” said Miriam Azem of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.
“Another reported that they were tied with cables behind their back for a few hours. Another mentioned pushing.”
She declined to specify which of the Irish citizens had reported the ill-treatment, saying their details would be kept private until permission was explicitly given.
“We’ve seen microaggressions ... aggressive treatment and violence,” she said, in a phone interview from outside Ktzi’ot Prison on Friday.
Israel’s foreign ministry has said all the detainees “are safe and in good health” and they would be deported as soon as possible.
In all, Adalah lawyers managed to meet 331 participants of the flotilla out of more than 400 who were detained by Israeli authorities, which have prevented their attempt to breach a 17-year naval blockade on Gaza with deliveries of humanitarian aid.
Swiss and Spanish activists from the flotilla said they were subjected to inhumane conditions during their detention by Israeli forces.
Among nine members of the flotilla who arrived home in Switzerland, some alleged sleep deprivation, lack of water and food, as well as some being beaten, kicked, and locked in a cage, the group representing them said in a statement.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson rejected the allegations.
Spanish activists also alleged mistreatment on their arrival in Spain late on Sunday after being deported.
“They beat us, dragged us along the ground, blindfolded us, tied our hands and feet, put us in cages and insulted us,” lawyer Rafael Borrego told reporters at Madrid’s airport.
Israel’s minister of justice Yariv Levin said on Monday that 170 flotilla activists have been deported, and of the 309 still in custody in Israel 200 were expected to be expelled in the next 24 hours.
Swedish activists on Saturday claimed that climate campaigner Greta Thunberg was shoved and forced to wear an Israeli flag during her detention, while others said they had clean food and water withheld and had their medication and belongings confiscated.
Israel’s foreign ministry has described widespread reports of detainees being mistreated after the flotilla was intercepted as “complete lies”.
A spokesperson said over the weekend that all detainees were given access to water, food, and restrooms, adding: “they were not denied access to legal counsel and all their legal rights were fully upheld”.
A Spanish detainee bit a woman medical worker at Ketziot Prison following a routine exam before her deportation, causing minor injuries treated on site, the ministry said.
On Sunday, the Swiss embassy in Tel Aviv visited the 10 Swiss nationals still being held in prison and said all were “in relatively good health, given the circumstances”. It added it was doing everything possible to ensure their prompt return.
Former Barcelona mayor Ada Calau, who was also on the flotilla, said there had been “mistreatment, but that was nothing compared to what the Palestinian people suffer every day”.
Spanish journalists Carlos de Barron and Nestor Prieto said Israeli authorities signed a statement on the deported activists’ behalf claiming they had entered Israel illegally.
“They placed documents in Hebrew in front of us, denying us the right to a translator, and we did not receive consular assistance because they did not allow the [Spanish] consul to enter the port of Ashdod,” Prieto said.
Consular staff have visited activists at the prison, according to statements from several countries whose citizens were detained.
More activists were expected to be released on Monday and sent to Athens. – Additional reporting by Reuters
