LONDON: An Italian journalist who took part in a Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla has accused the Israeli military of subjecting detainees to treatment that amounted to torture.
Speaking at a press conference in Rome on Wednesday, Alessandro Mantovani said: “From the very beginning, we were beaten and forced into humiliating positions. When we were taken to their military ships, we were pushed down face-first onto the deck, tied up, then forced to kneel and kept in the same extremely uncomfortable position for hours.”
He added that once aboard, detainees “were systematically beaten.”
Mantovani was among more than 400 participants abroad the Global Sumud Flotilla from over 40 countries intercepted by Israel in May, in what the solidarity group and legal experts described as “illegal, high-seas aggression” roughly 250 nautical miles (460 km) from Gaza.
Media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists identified at least seven journalists and media workers aboard the flotilla, including Mantovani, who said he was not even permitted to identify himself as a journalist after being detained.
