00:00They arrived back in Italy on Friday to a rapturous welcome.
00:05But activists released from Israeli custody after being detained on a flotilla of aid for Gaza returned with stories of
00:13abuse, organizers said.
00:16In an Instagram post by an activist group verified by Reuters, a French national showed bruises across his back and
00:24on his forearms.
00:25Organizers said several of the group were hospitalized with injuries, including broken bones.
00:31At least 15 reporting sexual assaults, including rape, while in Israeli detention.
00:38Elaria Del Mastro said they were kept barefoot and soaked to be kept cold.
00:44She said there were sexual abuses and if they tried to speak, they were shot at or isolated.
00:51Activist Luca Poggi described being stripped, thrown to the ground and kicked.
00:57He said some were denied a chance to speak with a lawyer.
01:00Reuters was not immediately able to verify the allegations.
01:05Israel's prison service did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the accusations on Friday, a holiday in Israel.
01:13The Israeli military referred queries to the foreign ministry, which referred them to the prison service.
01:18They said on Thursday, all prisoners and detainees are held in accordance with the law and given basic rights, including
01:25medical care and supervision by professional and trained prison staff.
01:30Israeli forces arrested 430 people on board 50 ships in international waters on Tuesday to halt a flotilla of volunteers
01:38trying to take aid supplies to the Gaza Strip.
01:41Antonella Bundu says that's where the abuse started.
01:44OK, when they stopped us, they tasered some of us, they took us on the prison ship and in the
01:53prison ship it's like a concentration camp, a floating concentration camp.
01:57We have barbed wire everywhere, there were containers where we had to sleep and obviously we were zip-tied.
02:03The allegations of abuse will add to pressure on Israeli authorities to explain the treatment of the detainees.
02:11An Israeli cabinet minister was filmed in a prison mocking some of the activists, sparking an international outcry.
02:17Italy said EU members were discussing imposing sanctions on the minister, Itamar Ben-Gavir.
02:22Italy said EU members was filmed in a prison for a long time in a prison for a long time
02:23in a prison for a long time.
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