Activists who boarded an international relief vessel bound for the Gaza Strip said Israeli forces seized and detained them and subjected them to severe abuse while on board.
On the 28th, groups including the Korea chapter of the Freedom Flotilla for the Liberation of Palestine (KFFP), Physicians for Humanitarian Action, and Palestine Emergency Action held a press conference titled “Testimonies and Condemnation of Israeli Abuse of Peace Flotilla Activists” at Green Hospital in Jungnang-gu, Seoul.
At the conference, activist Kim Ah-hyun (known by the alias Haecho) said men were tasered and women were sexually assaulted and raped. She said she heard soldiers jeering and shouting orders and could hear people being beaten; the screams were so prolonged they felt suffocating.
Another activist, Kim Dong-hyun, said he heard people crying out in pain from torture and that sexual assault appeared to be routine. He said detainees were beaten repeatedly for five to ten minutes and that hands bound with cable ties continued to bleed.
Korean-American activist Jonathan Victor Lee (alias Seungjun) also attended. He testified that armed soldiers beat him and delivered electric shocks in a dark container, fracturing his right rib. He said they forced detainees to lift their heads to watch comrades being assaulted and used stun grenades and beanbag rounds—nonlethal crowd-control munitions—that caused serious injuries.
He added that every detainee was beaten and that several people were subjected to sexual violence, saying the physical and sexual abuse they endured was severe.
The activists had boarded an international aid ship delivering supplies to the Gaza Strip when Israeli forces seized the vessel; they were released on the 20th. Kim Ah-hyun and Kim Dong-hyun returned to South Korea on the 22nd, and Jonathan Victor Lee returned on the 25th.
Kim Ah-hyun, whose passport was invalidated, said she is scheduled to meet with the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 2 and plans to reapply for a passport.
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