Israel took over a dozen UK citizens and residents hostage last week in international waters. And while the British government looked the other way, as it has with Israel’s genocide in Gaza in general, we want to highlight their stories.
UK government’s silence ‘inexcusable’ and ‘disgraceful’ over Israel’s hostages
After trying to smear the international aid volunteers, Israel illegally abducted around 500 of them from the Global Sumud Flotilla. The captors then took them to the notorious Ketziot torture centre, where they proceeded to abuse them. Abductees reported “violence, humiliation, deprivation of food and water, and a lack of legal counsel”.
Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whom the UK has sanctioned for his incitement of violence and hatred against Palestinians, visited the hostage facility and said the peaceful humanitarians deserved “the conditions of terrorists”. He added that he was “proud that we are treating the ‘flotilla activists’ as terror supporters”.
Prize-winning climate campaigner Greta Thunberg faced torture, with witnesses saying the Israeli hostage-takers “dragged [her] by her hair in front of our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag”. The kidnappers also “singled out” Jewish organiser David Adler, whom they forced to “hold and look at an Israeli flag”.
The UK abandoned people joining the flotilla from Britain, however. There was near-silence regarding their illegal abduction, and a spokesperson for genocide-denier Keir Starmer simply called it “a matter for the Israeli government“. Critics responded by questioning why it wasn’t a concern for the British government and calling it “a disgraceful dereliction of duty“. And they doubted the government would have had the same response if it had been Russia that had attacked UK vessels and kidnapped UK citizens in international waters.
The daughter of one British abductee insisted that while the government “may not agree with the flotilla’s mission, they have a responsibility to their citizens”. And she called its silence “inexcusable”.
The civilians who stepped up as the government looked away
RAF veteran Malcolm Ducker was one of Israel’s UK hostages. But while RAF Akrotiri has functioned as a base to fuel genocide and send spy missions to ‘look for hostages’ for Israel, Britain didn’t blink an eye over Ducker’s abduction and mistreatment in Israeli captivity. As Declassified UK reported, the Israeli captors threw away Ducker’s medication and locked him away for days with insect infestation and “no access to clean water or proper food”.
BREAKING — RAF veteran Malcolm Ducker has finally been released from illegal Israeli captivity and has been deported to Jordan alongside over 100 other flotilla members.
Here is why he tried to break the siege of Gaza
pic.twitter.com/RT8o1X72En
— Declassified UK (@declassifiedUK) October 7, 2025
Kieran Andrieu is a journalist, and he spoke of the abusive conditions in Israeli captivity, but also of the strong spirit of the hostages. When Ben-Gvir paraded arrogantly in front of the abductees, he said, “everybody… 300 people on their knees — in fear, no doubt — started shouting, “Free Palestine!” But the captors had the power, and “were throwing people’s medicine in the bin in front of them and laughing in their faces”. They didn’t provide “any drinking water whatsoever”, meanwhile, and “the food we were given was infested with insects”.
“Imagine what they are willing to do to Palestinians if they’re willing to do that to us.”
British-Palestinian journalist Kieran Andrieu tells @SkyYaldaHakim his experience being detained by Israeli authorities aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla.https://t.co/VIHyTycgur pic.twitter.com/noKAjc5msx
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 6, 2025
Fellow journalist Yvonne Ridley also noted denial of her medication, and officials who visited her called her conditions “deeply concerning”, including “aggressive” and “intimidating” treatment from her captors.Another journalist, Sarah Wilkinson, even faced arrest upon her return to Britain. This follows previous harassment by the British state in connection to her coverage of the Gaza genocide.
Sarah Wilkinson just faced horrific abuse in an Israeli prison and has now been detained by terror police at Heathrow Airport for pointless questioning. She has no money, no phone. Her ‘crime’ is that she has covered the genocide in Gaza with footage Israel try to suppress. pic.twitter.com/0091VZfGh8
— The Crispin Flintoff Show (@CrispinShow) October 6, 2025
71-year-old Margaret Pacetta was resolute on her return to Britain despite her cruel treatment in Israel. She had reported “lack of access to food, violent treatment from Israeli officials, and overcrowded and cramped conditions”.
Released Scottish #GlobalSumudFilotilla abductee Margaret Pacetta is hospitalised with a broken leg, multiple infections & severe dehydration pic.twitter.com/NTLpFqN4qG
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) October 7, 2025
Ill and bruised, but on the right side of history
Evie Snedker was another UK hostage taken by Israel. And she explained after her release how her captors “stole my EpiPen from me” and, when she told them she could die without it, they just said “We don’t care”. Part of the “terrible treatment” from Israeli captors, she suggested, stemmed from their ‘incompetence’ and ‘disorganisation’. Upon her deportation to Türkiye, she was ill and received medical treatment at hospital. As she described, “They took us straight from the airport to a forensics… lab, and they did full reports on us, full medical checks. All our bruises and stuff they fully took into account, psychological analysis”.
Ewa Jasiewicz lives in Keir Starmer’s constituency, and is a longstanding campaigner against Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. And trade unionists responded to her abduction by insisting she had “done absolutely nothing wrong”.Aaron White had previously said he felt it was his duty, as someone from a country whose government was facilitating the genocide in Gaza, to participate in the flotilla. White’s MP Barry Gardiner criticised the government’s response on the kidnapping of White and others, saying “The U.K. must not remain pitifully silent in the face of this direct assault on its citizens”.Glasgow campaigner Saddaqat Khan‘s wife said he’d joined the flotilla “because he couldn’t stand watching innocent women and children being starved”.Hannah Schafer is a sailing instructor and climate campaigner. Her MP also spoke up against her illegal abduction, slamming Israel’s “flagrant breach of international law”.Hussain Sijaad reported that Israeli kidnappers had denied him food and water, deprived him of sleep, and left him out in the sun. Upon his arrival in the UK, supporters greeted him with chants.52-year-old UK hostage Jim Hickey had joined the flotilla to express his “outrage at the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide”. And he had described regular Israeli harassment before the mass abduction event last week as “psychological warfare”.Israeli kidnappers also took Bianca Milacic, Husamettin Eyupoglu, and Frances Jane Cumings hostage.
The voyage for humanity continues, despite Israel taking UK citizen’s hostage
The humanitarian mission to break Israel’s brutal, illegal siege of occupied Gaza is far from over. Because the Thousand Madleens to Gaza flotilla is sailing right now. More British participants are on board and
The ‘Thousand Madleens’ convoy continues sailing towards Gaza to break the decades-long Israeli siege
Led by the ship Conscience, the 11-vessel Freedom Flotilla Coalition continues its mission across the Mediterranean, with over 150 international activists from 30… pic.twitter.com/XBUNwJEkg4
— Global Sumud Flotilla (@GlobalSumud) October 7, 2025
One participant, emergency nurse and paramedic Leigh Evans, insisted that:
If we all went there, they couldn’t do what they’re doing
But failing that, he said, we can rise up and force our politicians to take action.
‘I am on the Thousand Madleens flotilla to Gaza. My message to the world is to rise up, go to Palestine. If we all went there, they couldn’t do what they’re doing’
Leigh Evans, an emergency nurse and paramedic from the Thousands of Madleens convoy of the Freedom Flotilla… pic.twitter.com/137PLTPuCf
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) October 6, 2025
And he’s right. For humanity to prevail, we desperately need brave, compassionate people like those we’ve mentioned above to step up and demand justice. Whether that’s joining a flotilla, supporting one, or doing everything we can from our own community to bring about change, action is no longer optional. It’s a duty for anyone who doesn’t want this descent into dystopia to become the new normal.
By Ed Sykes
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