The Freedom Flotilla Coalition called on Friday, January 2, 2026, for an investigation into allegations of sexual assault and rape suffered by some of its members in October 2025 at the hands of Israeli police and prison officials, after they were arrested while attempting to reach Gaza with humanitarian aid.
“The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) condemns these acts in the strongest possible terms and demands an immediate, independent, and credible investigation, as well as accountability for all those responsible,” the organization said in a statement.
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The incidents occurred on October 8 in the Israeli prison where the Freedom Flotilla volunteers were taken after being intercepted by the Israeli army, which boarded their boats in international waters.
Among those reporting sexual assaults is German journalist Anna Liedtke, who was aboard the Conscience and reported on December 21 that “Israeli personnel raped her after she resisted a body search.” Also on board was Italian journalist Vincenzo Fullone, who has reported being “subjected to repeated sexual assaults amounting to rape while illegally detained, as has Australian activist Surya McEwen.”
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition condemned the repeated instances in which the Israeli regime commits such crimes with impunity. “The horrific attack against the Flotilla volunteers must be understood within the broader context of a deeply entrenched system of violence in which Israeli soldiers, police, and prison guards have long operated with impunity,” the Coalition stated.
We condemn grotesque sexual assaults by Israeli forces. We demand accountability amid systemic culture of impunity.https://t.co/tqpcbzHOsA
— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) January 2, 2026
In the statement, the Flotilla reiterated that “sexual crimes constitute egregious violations of human dignity and grave breaches of international human rights law and humanitarian law.”
The group, which did not rule out the possibility of new complainants coming forward “as space becomes available,” affirmed that it will continue to support “the flotilla volunteers who have suffered sexual violence” and maintained that “Palestinians—activists, children, women, men, and the elderly in detention—have suffered far more widespread and systematic sexual violence and torture at the hands of Israel, without credible accountability mechanisms,” in Israeli prisons.
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