Greta Thunberg has claimed Israeli guards beat her, left foul graffiti on her luggage and stamped on her famous frog hat during a ‘torturous’ period in captivity.
The Swedish eco-warrior was detained for five days after her Gaza bound Freedom Flotilla was intercepted by Israel when more than 40 vessels tried to breach the maritime blockade on the enclave.
Thunberg, 22, was one of 437 activists, parliamentarians and lawyers who set out from Barcelona to deliver aid to the besieged strip before being seized.
She was detained for five days at Ketziot prison in the Negev desert, usually used to hold Palestinian security prisoners accused of involvement in terrorist activities, before being deported to Greece on October 6.
Thunberg, who originally said she did not want to draw attention away from the suffering of Palestinians by complaining about her prison conditions, claimed she was beaten and abused by Israeli guards.
She described being held in a bug infested cells where she received little water and was mocked by guards and military officers who took selfies with her – later drawing a penis and writing ‘whore’ on her suitcase.
The prison officers put a flag in the corner and ‘kicked me every time the flag touched my face’, she told Swedish outlet Aftonbladet, adding that she received ‘special’ treatment.
‘After a while, my hands were put in cable ties, very tight. A bunch of guards lined up to take selfies with me as I sat there’.
She complained the guards lacked ’empathy and compassion’ and repeatedly took selfies throughout her detention.
She said she was given limited food and clean water and was forced to drink from a tap near a toilet sink, adding that several of her fellow detainees got sick.
The 22-year-old also hit out at Israeli officers for making her change her ‘Free Palestine’ t-shirt.
‘Then they ripped my frog hat off, threw it on the ground, stomped and kicked it and kind of had a tantrum,’ she said.
In one incident, she claimed 60 detainees were put in a small cage in the sun causing people to faint.
‘Then guards came and said, “We are going to gas you.” It was standard for them to say that. They held up a gas cylinder and threatened to press it against us.’
She also came face to face with far-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who accused her of being a ‘terrorist who wants to kill Jewish babies’.
Thunberg, who is back in her native Sweden – where she lives in a commune and eats discarded food she takes from dumpsters, admitted she is unaware what happened to the food and medicine she hoped to deliver to Gaza.
The environmental activist was given a hero’s welcome after landing at Athens International Airport following her deportation.
Crowds of hundreds of supporters cheered and chanted ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Long live the flotilla’ as she walked through them holding a bunch of flowers.
But she revealed that her suitcase had been vandalised with a drawing of a penis and the words ‘Whore Greta’.
Thunberg first attempted to break the Gaza naval blockade with her Freedom Flotilla in June but was swiftly deported after being seized by Israeli forces.
After being released from Israel following her second attempt, she said: ‘Personally, I don’t want to share what I was subjected to because I don’t want it to make headlines and “Greta has been tortured”, because that’s not the story here, adding that what they were subjected to paled in comparison to what people in Gaza experienced daily.
Other flotilla members detained by Israel claimed they suffered abuse including sleep deprivation to beatings and having automatic rifles pointed at their heads.
They also alleged they were forced sleep on the floor, were subjected to insults, had dogs set upon them, and were made to watch footage of the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Some said they noticed Israeli forces appeared to target Thunberg for harsher treatment.
Former Palestinian detainees have made claims about the mistreatment they experienced at the prison, including sexual abuse, severe beatings, medical negligence and being deprived of food and water.
Israel’s foreign ministry previously dismissed all claims of mistreatment of members of the flotilla as ‘brazen lies’, stating ‘all the detainees’ legal rights are fully upheld
Israel’s foreign ministry issued a statement, accompanied by photos of Thunberg at the airport, saying all participants’ legal rights had been upheld and the only violence involved an activist who bit a female medic at Israel’s Ketziot prison.
The national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said he was ‘proud’ of the way staff behaved at Ketziot.
He said in a statement on the activists: ‘They should get a good feel for the conditions in Ketziot prison and think twice before they approach Israel again.’
