Member of the Gaza-bound flotilla speaks to NEWS 24/7 about torture at the hands of Israel

“They beat me with knee strikes, punches, rifle barrels and gunstocks. They broke my nose, vertebrae and ribs — and I wasn’t the only one. Many people were hit with tasers. After that brutal beating, we were faced with a harsh reality. We were in the middle of nowhere, prisoners and battered, with no idea where we were being taken and no one knowing where we were.”

Dimitris Bitoulas-Kourousis is one of the most seriously injured among the 19 members of the Greek delegation aboard the Global Summud Flotilla. Members of the flotilla were abducted by Israel in international waters, off the coast of Cyprus, while sailing their vessels carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. They later described a series of what they say were carefully orchestrated acts of torture by Israeli forces after returning to Greece on Friday night.

We spoke with Dimitris on Monday afternoon (25/5), shortly after he was discharged from hospital. His personal toll from the hours spent in the hands of Israeli forces includes four broken ribs on the left side, one on the right, two fractured vertebrae, a crack in his lower back and a broken nose.

He spoke to NEWS 24/7 about what they endured, beginning with the moment the mission came under attack. We first asked him to describe that moment.

The moment Israeli commandos stormed the flotilla vessels

“We knew from the act of piracy off Crete that the Greek state would not only refuse to help us, but might even assist in the piracy, so we had no hope of any support. The same obviously applies to Cyprus and to any state that has a strategic alliance with Israel,” he said initially, before describing the moment IDF soldiers seized their vessels:

“Given that — and also the flotilla’s policy of non-violence — when the commandos arrived, we obeyed their orders. They searched us, forced us onto an inflatable boat without our belongings, and then proceeded to destroy the vessel. In other words, foreign property was destroyed and our belongings were lost at sea, more than 200 nautical miles away from Israel.”

“What legal framework exists to legitimise such an action? Who will compensate us for the vessel and our belongings, and where can we seek legal recourse for our abduction when it took place entirely outside any legal framework?” he asks.

The Timeline of the Torture

As our conversation continued, we asked him to describe what happened from the moment the vessel came under attack until their deportation from Israel, as well as the forms of violence and intimidation they say were inflicted on them. What follows is his account of their time in the hands of the Israeli authorities:

“After the act of piracy, we were transferred to a prison ship — another blatant violation of every right imaginable. There, they threw us into water, stripped us naked, and then attempted a façade of legality by taking our medical histories. To give you a picture, the ship had two control towers, and between them they had set up a rectangle made of shipping containers — two on the long sides and one on each short side. One of the containers had two doors and functioned as an entrance. Every single one of us was beaten while passing through that entrance before being thrown into the enclosed space formed by the containers.

They beat me with knee strikes, punches, rifle barrels and gunstocks. They broke my nose, vertebrae and ribs — and I wasn’t the only one. Many people were hit with tasers.

After that brutal beating, we were faced with a harsh reality. We were in the middle of nowhere, prisoners and battered, with no idea where we were being taken and no one knowing where we were.

The IDF has turned torture into a method, using every possible means. As one example, when they realised we were watching the ship’s flag to figure out our direction, they took it down so we would lose any sense of orientation. When they beat people inside the container, they simultaneously hammered on the metal walls so the screams would blend with the loud noise and intensify the terror. They used visual and auditory methods to heighten uncertainty, which was a central element of the torture. The same thing happened on the third day aboard the ship, when they played their national anthem 42 times while we were forced to kneel.

The food — basically stale bread — was minimal, thrown on the floor and cold. The water they gave us on the ship amounted to about 200ml per person, while basic hygiene items were missing and only provided after repeated demands.

The days on the ship passed in a loop. IDF officers would enter the area throwing stun grenades, pinning us against the walls with plastic shields while conducting searches in the containers and distributing the tiny amounts of water and food. They fired rubber bullets for intimidation, some of which hit people. They would not let us sleep, hammering on the containers from the outside and shining spotlights and laser sights from their weapons into the containers. Everything pointed to the fact that these torture methods had all been rehearsed — and we know very well they have been used on the bodies of thousands of Palestinians.

After two days under those conditions came the humiliation shown in the videos you saw. It began with the national anthem I mentioned earlier. Then we were transferred to an outdoor area at the port, into a tent where some of us remained in the same stress position for more than three hours. That was where the criminal Ben Gvir visited us. In between, they stripped us again and beat us again.

What followed was a Kafkaesque process of bureaucracy and humiliation at the port facilities. Their attempts to intimidate us into signing voluntary departure papers alternated with slaps and degrading procedures. This entire process lasted another three hours, during which we remained handcuffed and guards continuously forced our heads downward. As a result, when we walked we had to bend into an L-shape, otherwise we were forced to kneel on the ground. You can imagine what that meant for those of us with broken ribs…

After three more strip searches and photographs for supposed documentation, they transferred us to prison. To avoid tiring you with details, the same process repeated there: endless Kafkaesque bureaucracy, carefully designed to exhaust us and make it feel like there was no end in sight, stress positions, slaps and punches, more stripping and theft of our clothes, cramming us into tiny cells and depriving us of water.

After a mock trial in which we were accused and convicted of illegally entering the country — an entry that was entirely against our will, since we had been abducted 200 nautical miles away from Israel — they put us to sleep in open cells. The next day, after a continuation of the bureaucratic terror, they loaded us into prison vans and deported us.”

“All members of the mission suffered injuries”

We also asked whether there had been serious injuries and what happened in his own case:

“Yes, people were seriously injured. Everyone had injuries. I suffered four broken ribs on the left side, one on the right, two fractured vertebrae, a small crack in my lower back and a broken nose. I was among the most seriously injured. Another comrade from the Greek delegation suffered similar injuries, while one female comrade still cannot walk properly,” he said.

We discussed further the violence they say they endured. We asked whether the torture was continuous, whether all members of the mission were treated the same or whether there were differences based on gender or nationality, and whether there were incidents of sexual harassment or sexual assault.

“As I described, the torture was multiple and continuous. I believe we were never truly detained except for the few hours we slept in prison. Keeping 80 people inside a 4×20 container is not detention — it is torture. Another form of torture was the randomness of the violence. They did not target someone specifically because of body type or nationality. The violence was random and senseless, so you could never feel calm,” he explained to NEWS 24/7.

Regarding sexual violence, he said:

“Comrades reported incidents of sexual abuse to us. I do not know the details. What I do know is that all the violence inflicted on us had sexual characteristics — the insults, the forced stripping, the squeezing of genitals during searches. Everything we all went through constitutes sexual violence, even if it is not portrayed in a dramatic enough way.”

“Sexual violence within the Zionist entity is a method of intimidation and attack. You probably saw the recent New York Times report on the issue. It is proven and widely known that hundreds of Palestinian detainees are raped and abused, even with dogs…” he added.

Speaking about the crescendo of hatred and dehumanisation associated with Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — which sparked strong international reactions — he said:

“We never actually saw him ourselves. If I had seen him, I think I would have spat at him no matter the consequences. Honour and admiration to the comrade who shouted slogans right in his face.”

“We Had No Communication”

Another aspect concerns access to lawyers, relatives or the Greek authorities during what they describe as their unlawful detention. “We had no communication whatsoever,” he explained, adding that “the Greek state once again acted as a willing accomplice.”

“I was not at all surprised by its submissiveness and inability to act. The ironic thing is that it is exposing itself before its own citizens. What strong diplomacy and what sovereign rights? Torture took place (off Crete) and kidnappings occurred in Greek territorial waters, foreign vessels operated within Greece, and then Greek citizens were abducted in international waters,” he continued, adding:

“The only sovereignty the Greek state possesses is that of the American-NATO axis and its alliance with Israel, and to the same extent that it is subjected to that dominance, it also exercises it internally.”

Regarding medical findings, photographs or testimonies documenting the alleged torture endured by the activists — and whether these could be used in international legal proceedings if they intend to pursue such action — he told us that “all necessary legal steps will be taken to expose what we went through.”

“Personally, I have no hope in international institutions. They are not stopping the genocide, and they will not act over what we experienced. Their only usefulness lies in exposing the weakness of the existing international legal order in the face of imperialist and Zionist reality. Exhausting all legal avenues is the path toward a more revolutionary understanding of the world, and of the need for and meaning of solidarity,” he added.

“We Went Through Nothing Compared to What Palestinians Endure”

Speaking about his decision to join one of the vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla and the mission’s objective, he said:

“From the very beginning, the goal was twofold. On the one hand, it was about practically breaking the illegal blockade and creating a humanitarian corridor by sea. On the other hand — and for me this was the primary objective — it was about awakening Western societies and triggering a process that would accelerate the movement toward shutting down NATO bases and ending all cooperation with the Zionist entity. We can say that, to a certain extent, we are already achieving the second goal.”

What he insists must not be forgotten is what he describes as Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which, he notes, also involves Greek complicity.

“I consider the political targeting of Greece’s involvement in the genocide to be of crucial importance, and I wanted attention to be directed there. Of course, the continuation of the genocide played the main role in our decision to board the ships, but also the expansion of imperialism in the region through the US-Israel war against Iran and the invasion of Lebanon.”

We also asked what kept them standing while enduring all that violence:

“The Palestinian resistance. A people who, even before the Nakba in 1948, have suffered every misery imaginable and still refuse to bow their heads — and when their heads are forcibly pushed down, they raise Kalashnikovs and kites. We went through nothing compared to what they endure.”

“My thoughts were with all the Palestinian men and women suffering in prisons, and who, the moment they are released, immediately raise their heads again — along with their books, their olive sticks and their weapons. We are far too insignificant to claim we suffered in comparison to what they live through,” he explained.

Asked whether the violent campaign carried out by Israeli forces was intended to intimidate the wider international solidarity movement supporting the Palestinian people, his answer was unequivocal.

“Obviously that was the intention. They tried to intimidate us. But there is no greater satisfaction than the support we received from Palestinian resistance organisations and others, as well as from what remains of Palestinian civil society.”

“I want to add that this mission managed, diplomatically and at an international political level, to shake existing power balances. Now is the time for action on the home front. If every state does not stop participating in the NATO mechanism, if the West does not end its military, moral and political support for Israel, the genocide will not stop. Our hands are here to stop them; our eyes and hearts are in Palestine and the Middle East, so that we may continue to draw inspiration,” he concluded.