“They have hit us, they have dragged us on the soils, they have bandaged our eyes, they have tied us hands and feet, they have put us in cages, they have insulted us.” This is how the Andalusian lawyer Rafael Borrego reported this Sunday before numerous media how the days that he and the rest of the members of the captivity have passed since they were between Wednesday night and Thursday night, and taken to a prison in that country when they tried to take humanitarian aid to Gaza. Borrego is part of 20 other Spaniards, of the first group that has returned to Spain. The rest of the detainees that follow in, 28, plans to return this Monday on a flight that will land in Athens, according to sources close to families and the organization of the flotilla, citing the Spanish consulate in Israel.
The arrival of the released was waiting. Tel Aviv’s Air Europa flight that transported the Spaniards landed at half past eight in the afternoon in Madrid, but it was not until more an hour later when they left, between shouts of joy and applause of more than a hundred people who came to receive them. In this first group, the former mayor of Barcelona and the councilor of ERC Jordi Coronas have traveled, but they took another domestic flight to Barcelona.
From at least two hours before landing, numerous media, family members and people unrelated to those released had gathered at the airport terminal. Among them, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, who could meet with the group before and transmitted to the relatives that everyone was fine. “Affected by what they have lived, but encouraged to be here,” he said.
During the wait, the families were separated from the press and the rest of the people by a police cordon, with the intention that the newcomers could leave peacefully, but as soon as the doors opened, the tension exploded, the cord broke and the hugs were everything. And also the applause and songs, flags waving and, above all, mothers, fathers, couples, brothers and friendships looking for their loved ones among those who were dating. Like Josefa and Raúl, the parents of the Catalan Laia Rosell, who could not endure the tears when they finally hugged their daughter.
Bad treatment
The activists, although very excited and some even with the crying eyes, barely let ten minutes pass to organize and read a statement written to pencil in the bags to vomit that are offered in the planes. First of all, they stressed that as much as their suffering has been great, worse is that of the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, which continue to be bombarded despite the fact that the peace plan of the Paz president of the US President Donald Trump should have already been implemented, accepted by Hamás and Israel, which foresees that the attacks are immediately stopped.
Borrego, who is also a lawyer, explained that violence climbed significantly when they arrived at the port of Ashdod. “We spent seven hours handcuffed with our hands on the back, sitting on the asphalt at night, while the extremist minister Ben Gvir was walking,” he denounced. “They stole virtually all our personal objects,” he added.
Flotilla members confirmed that several of their peers have denied the necessary medication, in concrete insulin for the diabetics and the necessary pills for another person with a cardiac pathology. “They told us that they did not have doctors for animals,” Borrego said, while others of their companions, around them, gave an account of other forms of torture that they have suffered, such as sleep deprivation, or point them with weapons in vital areas such as head and heart, or threaten them with dogs.
The released have recalled that more than a hundred members of the flotilla are still imprisoned in Israel, and that the imprisoned Palestinians are many more. They have also thanked the authorities for their intermediation to release them, and have insisted that what they have left to do is call popular mobilization. “That he is still as intense as he is. Spain is a reference in that. We thank the Spanish people for everything they are doing, for the courage of courage he has given. And we ask governments to do everything they can and do more,” Borrego encouraged.
Among those who have been waiting for those released, feelings have been impatient and joy. Amin Abdelkaber was looking forward to his wife, the influencer Ana María Mayor Callejas, with whom she has six children. “I have a lot of joy, but also feelings found, we are very sad for all the companions of her who are still there and are suffering a lot,” he said.
In the midst of tears and a hug that lasted several minutes, the social worker was received, with whom Abdelkaber had no contact since October 1 when Israel intercepted vessels. “All those who have emerged state that they have suffered mistreatment. Therefore, governments have to immediately imply to guarantee the integrity of all,” he said.
Fernando Serrano and Marina Guerrero are a marriage in Madrid that, even without being related to those released, wanted to express their thanks at the airport. “We feel a mixture of joy because they can go back, and indignation and much helplessness,” says Serrano, in reference to the current situation in the strip and the failed attempt to deliver humanitarian aid.
An “agreement” with Israel
The Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, explained that in this first group those who have signed a document traveled that they entered illegally in the country. “In any case, they have signed the document or not, this retention situation by Israel has to end immediately and their rights have to be respected,” Albares claimed in TVE. In Spanish territory, repatriated activists have stressed that they were forced to sign documents in Hebrew that they did not understand and that until the last moment they did not allow them to have translator or legal or consular assistance.
“We have also clearly transferred which of these citizens are Spanish parliamentarians and, therefore, they have guarantees and immunities that are superior, which does not mean that we do not pay the same attention to all Spaniards. But, just as there have been countries that their parliamentarians have already come out, we demand that ours do it in the same way,” he added.
Among the congregates in Barajas was also Paula Espinosa, deputy deputy of the Valencian Courts of Compromís, who had come to pick up his partner, the deputy Juan Bordera, another of the crew of the flotilla. They feel happy to have a border back, but Espinosa does not stop remembering that there are more Spaniards who are still imprisoned in Israel. “We have been in contact with the consulate but they have not been very clear either, and we feel a bit of uneasiness because there are still people [presa] There and that humanitarian aid could not arrive, ”he denounces.
Among those retained by Israel there are also journalists. The Federation of Associations of Journalists from Spain (FAPE) categorically condemned “the arrest of more than 20 journalists, including two Spaniards.” This is the reporter of El País Carlos de Barrón and Néstor Prieto, of Deciphering war and collaborator of Public.
The first participants of the flotilla that were released, last Friday, were four Italian parliamentarians. Saturday ,. Many of them denounced to have been subjected to ill -treatment and humiliations during their prison stay, something that the NGO Adalah had already counted on the eve, which has assumed the legal defense of the detainees of the flotilla. According to Reuters, Israel has deported 170 of the more than 450 retained.
The ultra -rightist Minister of Israeli National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, spoke this Sunday on the conditions of detention of the flotilla activists. He insisted that the members of the mission support Hamas’s terrorism and has defended that “anyone who supports terrorism is a terrorist and deserves terrorist conditions.”
Complaints in Italy
The activists who are deported coincide, however, in recounting ill -treatment and humiliations. In Italy there are already two complaints before the Prosecutor’s Office against Israel for illegal detention in international waters and for violation of human rights and defense during arrests.
“They have treated us as animals,” says Paolo Romano, regional advisor to the Democratic Party (PD) in Lombardy and one of the five Italian politicians who were in the flotilla, reports íñiñigo Dominguez. Romano is one of the 26 Italians released by Israel who arrived at the airports in Rome and Milan on Saturday night. They are still in Israel another 15 who have not accepted deportation.
All those who have returned have related severe and “humiliating” treatment, with psychological and physical abuse, teasing, insults, kneeling hours looking at the ground or locked up with air conditioning at low temperatures. “(Israeli soldiers) forced us to kneel mouth and, if we moved, they hit us, they laughed at us, insulted us, used psychological and physical violence,” says Romano.
