North Belfast Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) participant Fra Hughes returned to Ireland on Saturday 24 May 2026, after two days being held captive by ‘Israeli’ Occupation Forces (IOF). The long-time Palestine advocate was one of 14 Irish activists from the flotilla who were subjected to brutal treatment by the terrorist regime. The flotilla mission was an attempt to bring essential supplies to Palestinians suffering horrifically under Zionist starvation policies.
Still in his prison tracksuit and speaking at a reception in Belfast on Saturday evening, Fra gave a detailed account of a harrowing experience. Still, as he acknowledged, it was far less than that endured by Palestinians in Zionist dungeons.
He was on board a boat of six, which was intercepted by IOF criminals on 20 May. It began with the thugs training their firearms directly on the activists, red laser dots lighting up their foreheads.
The IOF goons ordered activists to strip down to just their t-shirts and trousers, then lie flat on the boat’s deck. Fra told the crowd of around 30 at the reception that he expected to be flung from the flimsy boat, as all he had to cling onto was a nearby rope.
“That was her blood” – IOF brutalise activists
The IOF then abducted the six men onto a nearby warship. The North Belfast man said the vessel was coated in razor wire, filled with rifle-wielding guards and armed with water cannons. He recounted:
They’d used the water cannons on people before I arrived. Someone shouted “Free Palestine” and the IOF shot them with a BB gun. They ended up – a woman – with her leg ripped open. We actually saw bandages with blood on them, and I thought, “I wonder if they’d been doing a simulation or something because it’s a warship”. That was her blood.
Soldiers then forced the flotilla members to lie on the metal floor for hours. Fra, who is 63, said:
We were out on the deck and they kept flushing it with water every few hours. I had no shoes on. All I had was jeans and a t-shirt, so I was f***ing freezing. I’m shivering there. My jeans didn’t dry out til lunchtime the next day.
Activists were moved to another area, and after some time, they demanded water, toilet roll and sanitary products for women. Fra, who has raised huge sums for Palestinians via his Palestine Aid Ireland charity, recalled that:
An hour later guards threw them down through a hatch, like we were animals.
He continued:
By the second day, the portaloos are filling up, the smell would choke you. We’re walking about in the water. Any sign of resistance was immediately followed by violence. Anyone who said “Free Palestine” – BANG – you got hit with the BB gun.
The IOF brought the flotilla members to the port of Ashdod, in occupied Palestine, sadly now more commonly referred to as ‘Israel’. From there, the Zionist authorities transported them to Ktzi’ot prison. Guards offered Hughes the chance to sign a form, which would mean admitting to the ‘crime’ of breaking the siege on Gaza. He would then get the chance to go home within 24 hours. He answered with:
I’m answering no questions, I’m signing no forms.
“I’m going to make your life a f***ing living hell”
Throughout the ordeal, soldiers repeatedly searched him, including strip searches. He was always transferred by guards forcing one hand behind his back, and pushing his head down to waist level.
He recounted one frightening moment in which two guards took him away to a separate room for a search, and noticed he had a couple of matches still in a jeans pocket. They yelled at him, saying “Oh, so you want to start a fire here?!” They then asked him to turn his head to one side, and open his mouth. Fra said he expected to be struck in the face, but ultimately it was just more intimidation.
Others who guards took to the same area weren’t so ‘fortunate’. Fra said people of colour were in particular danger. He said of the ‘Israelis’:
They’re racist f***s – when they saw Hāhona [Ngāti Maniapoto New Zealand citizen Hāhona Jason Ormsby], with [his] tattoos, and he does a bit of body-building, they zeroed in on him.
He continued:
They banged his head against a wall and nearly knocked him out. They took a taser and put it to his testicles, but somebody came in and said, “no no, not here”. So instead they kicked him in the testicles.
A guard then pulled down his mask and said to Hāhona:
Look at me. I am going to make your life a f***ing living hell from now on.
Fra estimated 70–100 activists were victims of serious assaults. 15 people have reported sexual violence from IOF criminals. The Irish activist said many who sustained broken ribs got them from IOF soldiers kicking them while they were on the floor.
Belfast activist kicked to the floor then hauled up by handcuffs
The worst violence Fra suffered was when a guard ordered him to assume a stress position on his knees. Hands cuffed behind his back, he struggled to get down, and the guard then kicked him to the floor. The same man then hauled Fra up by the cuffs, causing severe pain to his wrists. When Fra yelled out, the guard threw him to the ground, only to order him back to his feet 30 seconds later. Fra told listeners:
I didn’t really suffer. There were people sexually assaulted, people with broken ribs, people with dislocated shoulders, people shot in the ankles with BB guns.
After Fra and other activists continued their refusal to sign anything, guards eventually relented and gave them food and mattresses. Fra and the other Irish activists refused food throughout their illegal detention, however. The ‘Israeli’ land thieves ultimately realised quick release for the abductees was in the settler-colony’s interests, rather than have worldwide publicity centre on the flotilla crews for a longer period.
On Friday 23 May, IOF thugs bundled Fra and comrades onto a bus to the nearest airport. A fellow activist proposed a singsong, and Fra led the bus in delivering *The Fields of Athenry,*a ballad about Britain’s mid-1800s genocide in Ireland. That then proceeded to Bob Vylan’s more recent classic “Death, Death to the IDF“.
Eventually, an irate guard banged on the window to the activists’ bus compartment, yelling “shut the fuck up!” The criminal threatened to throw a tear gas canister into the enclosed space, at which point the choir decided silence may be the wiser option when dealing with a genocidal land thief.
Politicians must show they care about their own citizens more than appeasing ‘Israel’
The Belfast man managed to get in a few more gestures of defiance, shouting “Free Palestine” while walking through the ‘Israeli’ airport as he departed, and flashing V signs to passengers from the pseudo-state. From there, he travelled to Istanbul, then on to Dublin, where he and other flotilla crew were met by hundreds of supporters.
Fra arrived back in Belfast shortly after local activists had staged an occupation of its city hall. They kneeled on its marble floor in the stress position that IOF guards demanded flotilla activists adopt while out in the baking sun.
Their call was to politicians: Flotilla activists have risked their lives to highlight Palestinians suffering. What will you now do to match their efforts? No more siding with the Zionist entity while your own citizens are tortured, as the Irish government did last week. Full sanctions now – zero trade or cooperation of any kind with so-called ‘Israel’.
Featured image via Fra Hughes
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