Israelis subdued captain by pointing gun at a child: Algerian activist gives chilling account of atrocities
at a one-year-old Turkish child in front of his parents to force the captain
of the Mavi Marmara to stop sailing.
Many reports have emerged from among the 124 activists who crossed over into
Amman, Jordan, yesterday.
In an interview with Sky News, IT professional Hasan Nowarah, from Glasgow,
described the moments as the Israeli troops descended on the ship.
"All you could see was screaming and bullets. Out of the blue as I looked
around our ship, all I could see were hundreds of Zodiacs. Hundreds of
Zodiacs full of soldiers, and big ships, lots of ships, and I believe as
well submarines in the sea."
Kuwaiti MP Walid Al Tabtabai said the Israelis were "brutal and arrogant".
"Israelis roughed up and humiliated all of us, women, men and children," he
said.
Algerian Izzeddine Zahrour said Israeli authorities "deprived us of food,
water and sleep and we weren't allowed to use the toilet".
"It was an ugly kidnapping and subsequently bad treatment in Israeli jail,"
he said.
"They handcuffed us, pushed us around and humiliated us," Egyptian MP Hazem
Farouq, who was also on the boat, said and added what he witnessed on the
ship "defied his imagination".
"It was hell on the sea. I saw Israeli soldiers killing activists in cold
blood and then walking on their bodies," Farouq, who was one of more than
700 activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla attacked by Israeli commandos,
said on Tuesday in Cairo.
"The Israeli soldiers sprayed bullets as if they were a mafia in an American
film."
Farouq and his colleague Mohammad Al Beltagui were detained along with many
activists, who survived the widely condemned Israeli attack. They were
released late on Monday after direct intervention by the Egyptian Foreign
Ministry.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Robbed
"The Israelis left some of the injured activists bleeding without treatment
until death," Farouq said.
He added that he and Al Beltagui had been robbed of all their belongings and
around $3,500 in cash. Both MPs belong to the banned Muslim Brotherhood,
Egypt's strongest opposition force.
"All the survivors on the ship were beaten up, stripped and humiliated by
the Israeli commandos while other Israeli soldiers were busy firing
teargas," said Al Beltagui.
"What happened is sheer thuggery and piracy," he added.
According to him, the blood was so copious on the ship that some Israeli
soldiers slipped while on board.
"We were kept aboard the ship until 3pm under the blazing sun, a situation
that made many people, including women, suffer sunstroke and lose
consciousness."
The two lawmakers, whom the Egyptian authorities said they had joined the
humanitarian effort without notifying them, said they and other activists
had refused to sign a written Israeli statement that they had attempted to
illegally enter Israel.
"Al Beltagui and I left the detention centre only in the underwear, which
were stained with blood of the martyrs, and without shoes until the Egyptian
Consul in Israel came to accompany us to the [Egyptian] border town of
Taba," said Farouq.
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