Editor: I will include the last few reports from Aladalah, an Israeli legal organization that supports Palestinians and their Supporters.
Adalah Update – October 5, 2025, 11:00 PM Jerusalem Time
The Israel Prison Service (IPS) informed Adalah lawyers of its intention to deport approximately 170 Global Sumud Flotilla participants tomorrow, without providing any details such as names, nationalities, or destinations. This follows the deportation of about 170 participants yesterday and today, most of whom were flown to Istanbul, with smaller groups deported to Italy and Spain.
Adalah attorneys made several visits today but were denied access to all participants. According to information received by Adalah, medications were allowed into the prison following Adalah’s repeated legal interventions and visits by several foreign embassies, whose representatives met with their nationals and checked on their health conditions inside the prison.
IPS allowed only a 30-minute visit, during which the lawyers met with all 11 Tunisian participants, all of whom are on hunger strike. The Tunisian participants reported that a large number of other participants are also on hunger strike.
The participants confirmed to the lawyers that widespread assaults and violence occurred during their transfer from the port to the prison and in the first days of their detention. Current conditions inside the prison are described as relatively stable, with continued concern over the health of the hunger strikers and denial of adequate medical care.
Adalah continues to closely monitor the conditions of the flotilla participants held in Israeli custody, insisting on access for lawyers’ visits despite IPS restrictions, and working to ensure the protection of all detainees’ rights until their deportation and safe return to their home countries.
Update, Sunday 5 October 2025, 14:20 Haifa time
Adalah: Ben-Gvir’s praise of IPS reflects state policy of ill-treatment and repression of flotilla participants; Adalah has documented numerous cases of mistreatment
Over the past days, Adalah has documented serious abuses suffered by the participants of the Global Sumud Flotilla, unlawfully intercepted by Israeli forces on 1 and 2 October 2025. According to testimonies, those detained were subjected to conditions that constitute clear violations of their rights under international law.
According to testimonies received by Adalah attorneys over the past two days during tribunal hearings at Ktzi’ot Prison of more than 80 participants. Participants were, as of yesterday, denied essential medical treatment and medications, including essential prescriptions for life threatening conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer. Food and water provisions were grossly inadequate, with some participants reporting to have received no food at all. The participants are detained in overcrowded cells, and some participants were forced to sleep on the floor under harsh and unsanitary conditions.
Several participants reported that they were interrogated by unidentified personnel and others reported mistreatment and abuse by prison guards. The authorities used physical violence against some detainees, with at least one participant sustaining injuries to his hands. Other participants were blindfolded and handcuffed for prolonged periods. One woman reported being forced to remove her hijab and was provided only a shirt as a replacement, while others reported restrictions on performing prayers. This ill-treatment follows mistreatment by the navy and the police during the unlawful interceptions and towing of the vessels from international waters.
The authorities have imposed severe restrictions on access to legal counsel (Adalah), and detainees have been completely denied contact with family members by phone. As of now, 87 participants remain in detention and have not yet seen a lawyer from Adalah. Adalah attorneys are currently present in the prison conducting visits. Adalah has not yet received any confirmation regarding deportations or flight information.
The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is responsible for the IPS, publicly praised the IPS for these conditions. In a statement, Ben-Gvir declared:
“I am proud of the Israel Prison Service officers who acted in accordance with the policy that I and Commissioner Kobi Yakobi have set. I was there, on their ships—I did not see assistance or humanitarianism. I saw one can of baby formula and a whole bunch of people pretending to be human rights activists, who in reality came to support terrorism and to celebrate against us. I visited Ktzi’ot Prison, and I took pride in the fact that we treat the ‘flotilla activists’ as supporters of terrorism. Whoever supports terrorism is a terrorist and deserves the conditions of a terrorist. If any of them thought they would come here and receive a red carpet and fanfare—they were mistaken. They should properly feel the conditions in Ktzi’ot Prison and think twice before approaching Israel again. That’s how it works.”
Adalah in response:
“These statements represent a blatant endorsement of inhumane treatment, abuse, and intimidation of the flotilla participants as state policy. Israel is applying tactics normally reserved for Palestinians in its custody, who are routinely subjected to systemic torture and horrific abuse. The treatment of flotilla participants has been unlawful from the very outset, beginning with the interception of the ships, preventing them from breaking the blockade and delivering humanitarian aid amid an ongoing genocide in Gaza, continuing with Israeli authorities treating them as having “illegally entered” the country despite being abducted from international waters, and culminating in their detention under harsh and degrading conditions that violate international law. This conduct, explicitly endorsed by the minister with authority over the IPS, demonstrates a deliberate use of repression against peaceful activists, human rights defenders, and individuals who seek to confront Israel’s ongoing crimes against Palestinians.”
Yesterday, Friday 3 October, Adalah lawyers met with approximately 80 flotilla participants during hearings before the tribunal reviewing detention orders.
Around 200 hearings were held late Thursday night and into Friday morning, without any prior notice to Adalah’s lawyers and without legal defenders for the flotilla participants present. Hearings are continuing today, and our lawyers are currently at Ktziot Prison where hundreds of flotilla are currently being held.
Participants reported various forms of mistreatment and aggression from the prison guards. Some stated they had not received any food since their unlawful interception, that their medications are being withheld, and that no alternative medications have been provided. Others reported a lack of access to clean drinking water and described the available water as unsafe or of poor quality.
While Adalah has not received any direct communication from the authorities regarding imminent deportations, we have confirmed that a Turkish plane departed today — coordinated by the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv — carrying 137 participants from several countries, including Turkey, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Libya, Jordan, Switzerland, Bahrain, and Malaysia.
1 October 2025: 23:00 Haifa time
Israel Intercepts Peaceful Flotilla Challenging Gaza Blockade: Adalah to Represent Activists Onboard
Adalah condemns in the strongest possible terms Israel’s unlawful interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a peaceful humanitarian mission attempting to break Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza amidst ongoing atrocities and genocide.
At this time, three of the more than 40 ships have already been intercepted, with several others currently unaccounted for and without communication, according to the Global Sumud Flotilla. The abduction of peaceful civilians in international waters, en route to Palestinian territorial waters, constitutes a brazen violation of international law.
Adalah will represent flotilla participants before Israeli authorities and challenge their anticipated unlawful detention. Adalah demands that Israeli authorities immediately halt unlawful interceptions, allow the flotilla to proceed to Gaza, ensure the immediate release of all participants already detained, return seized vessels and aid, and permit the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza by the participants without obstruction. Adalah will continue to provide timely updates as events unfold.
2 October, 2025: 14:45 (Haifa time) Adalah Update – Sumud Flotilla, Lawyers Denied Access to Participants
Following the illegal interception of dozens of ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla last night and earlier today, Adalah has received phone calls from participants reporting that immigration authorities have already begun conducting hearings on their deportation and detention orders, in the Ashdod port. These proceedings were initiated without prior notice to their lawyers and while denying participants access to legal counsel.
This constitutes a grave violation of due process and a denial of the participants’ fundamental rights. Adalah will continue to seek access and will take legal action as necessary.
Adalah Update (3 Oct- 19:30 Haifa Time)
Over the past 24 hours, Adalah attorneys met with 331 participants of the Global Sumud Flotilla at Ashdod Port, where they are facing hearings before Israeli immigration authorities. Several participants were processed without Adalah’s legal consultation, as our lawyers were initially denied access to them. This process followed the flotilla’s forcible towing after unlawful interceptions in international waters, where dozens of ships were stopped on their mission to break the unlawful siege of Gaza amidst ongoing genocide, mass atrocities, and famine.
The flotilla participants are in relatively stable condition, and Adalah continues to monitor their situation closely.
Upon their kidnapping from international waters, participants were forced to kneel with their hands zip-tied for at least five hours, after some participants chanted free Palestine. During the lawyers’ visits, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived in what was clearly intended as an act of humiliation and intimidation. The flotilla participants were filmed, and exploited in a degrading display of control. This display of humiliation took place alongside Israeli officials’ ongoing smear campaign, which falsely branded flotilla members as “terrorists” in an effort to discredit their peaceful mission and legitimize repressive tactics used against them.
The entire process is unlawful from start to finish. The interception itself violated international law, amounting to abduction in international waters. Israel’s attempt to justify these actions through enforcement of its blockade cannot stand: the blockade itself is illegal, constitutes collective punishment, and serves as a central tool of the ongoing genocide, including the deliberate use of starvation as a method of warfare.
Participants’ rights were systematically violated throughout this process. In addition to being denied access to water, bathroom, and medications, they were denied access to lawyers, which violated their basic rights to due process, fair trial, and legal representation. Yesterday, while the whereabouts of the flotilla volunteers were unknown, the lawyers were left waiting for about 9 hours outside the Ashdod Port, and were not notified when Israeli immigration authorities began processing and conducting hearings, learning about these illegal processes only after the detainees called them directly. Despite repeated denials of entry by Israeli police, Adalah lawyers eventually managed to access the port and provide consultations to the 331 participants. Several participants reported being subjected to aggression, threats, and harassment, including being woken violently whenever they tried to sleep.
The Authorities then transferred participants from Ashdod to Ktzi’ot Prison in the Naqab (Negev) and initiated tribunal hearings without informing the legal team, proceeding entirely without legal representation. Adalah Lawyers are now present in tribunal hearings, where the detention orders are currently being reviewed.
Adalah is pursuing legal measures to guarantee that every single participant is accounted for, while continuing prison visits. Adalah also calls for their immediate release from unlawful detention, and the retrieval of their personal belongings and humanitarian aid supplies.
Editor’s Note: All 42 ships have been intercepted and the
*Featured Image: Photo: AFP/ The Malaysian Reserve: Global Sumud Flotilla was detained in international waters. Detained activists to be deported to Europe.
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