Eight French nationals arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris from Turkey on Friday afternoon to supporters shouting "Long live the resilience of the Palestinian people". Two of the 36 French people who were on board the flotilla were still in hospital in Turkey, the returnees told awaiting reporters. Read moreFrance condemns Israel as it deports 37 French nationals over Gaza flotilla Holding a yellow rose and wearing a keffiyeh, Meriem Hadjal, 38, said she was detained on board one of the boats on Monday then transferred to Israel. "They made us go one by one into a pitch-black container. I was groped," said Hadjal, an activist from the Waves of Freedom-France group. "There were three soldiers in the container and a comrade on the ground with his trousers pulled down.
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Gaza flotilla: Activists allege abuse, sexual assault on return from Israel © Reuters
"One of them started touching my breasts. I then got huge deafening slaps to the head and the groping continued. "I was terrified. I thought I was going to be raped at that moment," she added, claiming that a colleague was tortured with a stun weapon. At Ashdod, in southern Israel, "we had to deal with Ben-Gvir's police who were extremely violent with us, humiliating, dehumanising", said Hadjal, referring to Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir. On Wednesday, Ben-Gvir sparked an outcry internationally but also within his own government by publishing a video of dozens of activists kneeling with their foreheads on the ground and their hands tied. Read moreFar-right Israeli minister sparks outcry with video of bound and kneeling Gaza flotilla activists 'Terror' Another activist, Adrien Bertel, described "a gratuitous escalation of humiliation, rights violations and terror".
