British veteran returns home after 'kidnapping' by Israeli forces during Gaza flotilla

A British veteran who captained a boat delivering aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has returned home after Israeli commandos stormed his vessel and held him and his fellow shipmates in a desert prison.

Malcolm Ducker, 75, captained the "All In" as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, an effort to break the siege on Gaza and bring humanitarian aid to the blockaded territory.

Ducker was held in Ketziot prison - a high-security facility in Israel’s Negev desert notorious for rampant sexual abuse and violence - alongside other volunteers from the flotilla, before being deported to Jordan and then returned to the UK with three other British citizens.

The RAF veteran, who previously served as a Cathay Pacific pilot, said the UK Border Force briefly detained all four volunteers who returned on Tuesday.

Before beginning his remarks outside Heathrow Airport, Ducker criticised the British government for failing to help him and other UK volunteers of the Global Sumud Flotilla, noting the lack of support they received compared to volunteers from other European nations, such as Spain and Ireland, who were held by Israel.

Experts in international law say that Israel's interception of the flotilla was "unlawful", as it had no jurisdiction to obstruct the vessels. 

Standing in a yellow raincoat and his prison-issued jogging bottoms, Ducker described how they were “kidnapped” from their British-flagged boat in “an act of piracy” at gunpoint, after Israeli forces jammed their electronics and navigation systems.

“We were taken against our will to Ashdod port, where many of us were physically attacked by the Israelis and strip-searched,” he said.

“Before boarding our boat, Israeli army speedboats repeatedly fired water cannons at us, telling us to slow down. When we stopped, commandos boarded and held us at gunpoint.”

The volunteers said their hands were tied behind their backs with zip ties for several hours in the sun and denied access to medicine.

'Constant threat of physical violence'

Israeli forces then placed the volunteers on prison buses for a three-hour journey to Ketziot prison, used by Israel to detain Palestinians accused of terrorism.

'And parallel [to this sleep deprivation], they continously played a documentary about October 7 [2023] at full volume day and night throughout our detention'

- Saddaqat Khan, Volunteer with Global Sumud Flotilla

Once inside the prison, volunteers reported that 15 of them were crammed into cells measuring roughly four by eight metres, which contained eight beds, one toilet, and a single sink.

Saddaqat Khan, who arrived on Tuesday with Ducker, described the harrowing conditions and constant intimidation faced by volunteers from the Israelis.

“We were constantly under threat of physical violence,” said the 48-year-old, before catching a flight to his home in Glasgow.

“The Israelis regularly brought in German Shepherd dogs, and guns were cocked and pointed at our foreheads.

"The sleep deprivation was relentless. They kept banging on the doors, lights turned on every two hours, and we were forced to stand up repeatedly.

“And parallel [to this sleep deprivation], they continuously played a documentary about October 7 [2023] at full volume day and night throughout our detention.”

Each volunteer stressed during their remarks that their experience was "nothing in comparison to what Palestinians face daily".

Israel's foreign ministry denied claims of mistreatment and described it as "brazen lies", posting on X that "all the detainees' legal rights are fully upheld".

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, meanwhile, praised the way staff behaved at Ketziot prison and said the activists "should get a good feel for the conditions in Ketziot prison and think twice before they approach Israel again".

Earlier, Jewish American activist David Adler, who was on board the Global Sumud Flotilla, shared a similar experience and told MEE that he and his fellow detainees were regularly beaten, tied up, psychologically tortured, and denied food and medicine over a period of five days in prison.

As co-general coordinator of the left-wing organisation Progressive International, Adler was one of about 470 activists intercepted by Israeli naval forces in international waters and taken first to the port of Ashdod and then to Ketziot.

He said the naval interception was violent, that an Israeli barge had fired water cannons at the flotilla, tried to ram them, and that in the end, Israel had stolen all the ships. Taken in international waters, the activists were abducted and brought to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

He said that once in positions of submission in the detention centre at Ashdod, he and the other Jewish member of the flotilla "were taken by the ear and ripped from the group for a photo op with Ben Gvir staring at the flag of the state of Israel".