Gaza Flotilla: RSF condemns violence against journalists illegally detained by Israeli authorities

"On our arrival in Ashdod port, unprecedented violence was unleashed upon us," Émilien Urbach, a journalist for the French daily L'Humanité, told RSF after returning to France on Monday, 6 October, following four days in Israel's Ketziot prison in the Negev desert. As he was arrested by the Israeli authorities and brought ashore, the journalist tried to show his press card and identify himself as a journalist. "I don't care," a soldier replied, throwing the document to the ground.

Between 1 and 3 October, the Israeli authorities unlawfully interceptedevery boat in the Sumud humanitarian flotilla, which was sailing towards Gaza - an initiative covered by at least 20 foreign journalists, according to RSF information. Like the crews - around 500 people - they were handcuffed and imprisoned by the Israeli army.

The human rights group Adalah, which is coordinating their legal defence, denounced the fact that many of the detained appeared before a judge without their lawyers. In addition, according to reports from several recently released detainees, all were deprived of sufficient water and food, as well as of their medication - including essential medication. "They took my belongings, my medication and my devices and refused to return them. The search was extremely humiliating: they threw my things in the bin, telling me I would find them in prison, but I recovered nothing," Lotfi Hajji, head of the Tunisian section of Qatari channel Al Jazeera, told RSF. He was deprived of his medical treatment for several days, until his release on 4 October.

Illegal and inhuman imprisonment

After their unlawful arrest at sea, flotilla participants were taken to Ashdod port. They were then forced to kneel with their heads to the ground for several hours. Émilien Urbach describes soldiers carrying out "gratuitous humiliation," knocking several people to the ground. Afterwards, the entire crew was "stripped of their belongings" before being placed, blindfolded, in vehicles with freezing air conditioning. Others were put on overheated buses. Émilien Urbach described it as "a form of torture."

The next day, they were taken to Ketziot, a high-security prison in the Negev desert, 150 kilometres from the coast where they had been seized. There, locked up at least ten to a cell in stifling heat, the prisoners were deprived of their most basic rights. "We had to drink out of a tap in the toilets that produced Water infected with fecal matter," said Kieran Andrieu, a Palestinian-British journalist, in an interview with Sky News.

"Two meals in four days, no outdoor time, no phone calls - all without any legal basis," Émilien Urbach recalls. In his cell, he counted eight beds for 15 prisoners. During the night, guards switched on the light to prevent them from sleeping. On two occasions, a guard threatened them by pushing the barrel of his weapon through the bars.

Worse still, some journalists - and several crew members - were reportedly beaten by Israeli soldiers. According to Moroccan activist Ayoub Habraoui, his cellmate, Tunisian photojournalist Yassine Gaidi, was "struck in the face several times" and "his hands were trampled on." Thameur Mekki, editor-in-chief of the media outlet Rachma, which works with Yassine Gaidi, told RSF he learned that "Yassine was particularly targeted for assaults during his unlawful detention through reports from his cellmates released on Saturday. We went roughly 24 hours without news of him. Lawyers seeking to visit him waited more than ten hours at the high-security Ketziot prison."

The Tunisian photojournalist was finally released on Tuesday, 7 October, and sent to Jordan. "We are relieved at his release and the start of repatriation procedures. He must undergo immediate medical examinations. It is time to end the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation army against journalists and the impunity of Prime Minister Netanyahu's genocidal government," Thameur Mekki added.

On 8 June, the Israeli authorities had already unlawfully detainedtwo journalists - Omar Faiadfrom Al Jazeeraand Yanis Mhamdifrom the French investigative site Blast- aboard the vessel Madleen, part of a previous humanitarian flotilla. Released on bail, the former was held for more than 24 hoursand the latter for eight days.