Gaza Flotilla Activist Criticizes Israel: 'They Treat Their Animals Better'

(Patria) - Julien Cabral has just completed his first journey with the "Gaza Flotilla." His eye is rimmed with purple, he has a wound on his left temple and an injured shoulder blade, AFP reports.

The 57-year-old Belgian, originally from the port of Antwerp, was on a small boat that left Turkey with six other people - an Italian, a Belgian, a Malaysian, a Finn, a Canadian-Palestinian, and a South African.

About ten members of the Israeli forces intercepted them in international waters more than 500 kilometers from the Israeli coast on Monday, he said upon arrival at Istanbul Airport yesterday.

Turkey evacuated 422 people on special flights, including 85 of its citizens, and deployed doctors and ambulances.

"First they jammed communications, then they boarded in broad daylight with weapons and fired plastic bullets just for fun," Cabral said.

"We learned that we were the twelfth intercepted ship. We were surprised. Corvettes were all around us. They used a lot of violence, even though we all had our hands in the air."

Cabral said the Israelis were marine commandos. "We know them," he added.

'A blow to the temple'

"I was second in command on the boat. Our captain, an Italian, was still standing and they immediately targeted him. I took a blow to my left temple," Cabral recounted.

"Then, still using violence, they transferred us, with our hands tied with plastic zip ties, to this prison ship, into containers. I heard them speaking in English: 'Let's have some fun.'"

He said the detainees asked to see a doctor for three days, but were always told "later, later."

"They took away medication from someone suffering from epilepsy. On the ship 'Sirius', seven people had 35 fractures," he added, pointing to his ribs and arms.

Soldiers from the upper deck threw boxes filled with bread and water onto the ship, "but not in sufficient quantities," he said. "There must have been 200 of us... We asked for more water, toilet paper, tampons for women. We had to ask for everything."

The detainees were removed from the ship on Wednesday and taken in cramped prison vans to be held near Ashdod, in southern Israel.

Cabral said the handcuffs were "too tight" and the detainees were bent over for hours.

"We couldn't see anything. They were pressing on our necks," he said.

"And they kept slapping us, insulting us... People were laughing with them, playing the Israeli anthem. They were particularly harsh towards Jordanians, Tunisians."

On Thursday morning, they were finally transferred to Ramon Airport near Eilat, in southern Israel.

"There we were again subjected to insults."

We will continue

Cabral hopes to return to Belgium today after seeing a doctor waiting for the evacuees.

He intends to set off again with the next flotilla. "Absolutely. We will continue," he said.

Bilal Kitay, a Turkish citizen from Bingol, a predominantly Kurdish city in eastern Turkey, held his wife's hands.

This was his second journey with the "Gaza Flotilla," on a boat with about ten other activists.

He insisted that their interception by Israeli forces was "much, much more violent than the previous one" in April.

"They attacked us," he said. "Each of us was beaten, women and men... This is what Palestinians constantly experience," he said.

"Unfortunately, they treat their animals better. They only consider themselves human."

Kitay also plans to set off with the next convoy to Gaza.