Flotilla, Mantovani, Il Fatto Quotidiano journalist: “They Beat Us, We Heard Screams — Then Came the Handcuffs and Shackles”

The first to arrive at Fiumicino this morning were Il Fatto Quotidiano correspondent Alessandro Mantovani and Five Star Movement MP Dario Carotenuto, both aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla when they were deported from Israel along with 430 other activists. During the night they stopped in Athens, where, thanks to a phone provided by the Italian embassy, Mantovani was able to reach his family and the Il Fatto editorial team — and begin recounting what had happened, from the first moments of the boarding of the Kasr-I Sadabad, the vessel he shared with Carotenuto, through to their return.

His account confirms not only the brutality of the treatment endured by the activists — as evidenced by images that circulated worldwide yesterday — but also that several were subjected to direct violence, as reported the previous evening by lawyers for the Global Sumud Flotilla. “We were among the last to be boarded,” Mantovani recounts. “Israeli forces fired several shots at our boat — I don’t know what kind of ammunition — to force us to the bow. Once detained, we were taken by corvette to a second ship being used as a prison. There we were chained and handcuffed. I was stripped, my glasses were thrown away, and I was left in my swimsuit. We were beaten and kicked — and we got off lightly compared to others. I could hear activists screaming; some almost certainly suffered broken ribs. On that second vessel, almost everyone who arrived — around 180 of us — was beaten.”

Mantovani, assigned number 164, was made to kneel on the ground alongside the others before being taken away together with number 147 — MP Dario Carotenuto. Before even reaching the port of Ashdod, both were transferred to a police holding cell at Ben Gurion Airport, where they received initial consular assistance.

Carotenuto is visibly shaken: “I was punched in the eye and briefly lost my vision. But I saw people with ear and eye injuries. I heard women reporting sexual violence. We are deeply worried about the activists still there, and have no way of knowing what they are going through.” Both men had been aboard the Kasr-I Sadabad in international waters, sailing toward Egypt. “They forced us to sign documents containing false statements,” the MP told Il Fatto. “We were a hundred miles from Port Said,” Mantovani added, “180 miles from Gaza when the Israelis boarded us.”

Yesterday, footage of the humiliations and violence at the port of Ashdod spread across the world: the images show Security Minister Ben Gvir and Transport Minister Regev taunting the activists, who were forced to kneel face down. Lawyers from the NGO Adalah were unable to meet with all of the detainees. Most are expected to be transferred to Ketziot prison today and, if Netanyahu’s position prevails, will face expedited deportation proceedings.

The original version in Italian