{"id":475723,"date":"2026-06-04T10:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T10:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/475723\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T10:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T10:32:09","slug":"penny-wong-says-she-believes-israeli-soldiers-sexually-assaulted-and-abused-australian-women-after-gaza-flotilla-australian-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/475723\/","title":{"rendered":"Penny Wong says she believes Israeli soldiers sexually assaulted and abused Australian women after Gaza flotilla | Australian foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong<\/a>, says she believes the Australian women who have alleged they were sexually assaulted and beaten by Israeli soldiers after being detained as part of a humanitarian flotilla attempting to bring aid to Gaza.<\/p>\n

Appearing at Senate estimates, Wong said the treatment of the Australian women was \u201cunacceptable\u201d, and the allegations they had subsequently made<\/a> were \u201cdistressing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy principled position is to always believe women when allegations of sexual assault are made,\u201d Wong said.<\/p>\n

Eleven Australians were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, sailing from Mediterranean ports in an attempt to deliver food, medicine and baby formula to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, blockaded by Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The boats were intercepted by Israeli naval forces and those onboard \u2013 unarmed civilians \u2013 were detained and deported, with some alleging violent abuse including beatings and rape. Israel has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n

Wong told the estimates committee: \u201cThose allegations are terrible. They are horrific. The treatment is unacceptable. And I express my empathy to those women to whom that was done.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the Australian government had raised concerns with Israel over the treatment of flotilla sailors, and Israel\u2019s refusal to grant Australian diplomats access to the Australians detained.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

The Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi detailed allegations made by some of the Australians<\/a> detained by Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of these flotilla participants, Juliet Lamont, has said she was sexually assaulted and beaten, cable tied and had so much water thrown in her face that at one point she thought she was going to drown. She says \u2018they wrenched my trousers and underwear down and I was raped by one of the soldiers. My daughter was syringed with an unknown substance. Other people had guns inserted inside them\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeve O\u2019Connor, another one of these brave humanitarians, has said she was abused, physically beaten and sexually humiliated. She says \u2018I had my hands pinned behind my back while being repeatedly kneed in the spine, kneed in the thighs\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Violet CoCo has told us that she was held at gunpoint, stripped of her clothes and pushed into a shipping container where she was beaten, kicked and sexually assaulted before being thrown into a prison yard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faruqi asked Wong directly: \u201cDo you believe these women?\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong responded: \u201cMy principled position is to always believe women when allegations of sexual assault are made.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a heated exchange with Faruqi, Wong reasserted her position: \u201cYou should believe, and I believe, women who come forward with these assertions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senate committee broke before later returning to the subject.<\/p>\n

In the latter debate, Wong confirmed her office was in direct contact with some of the Australian women who had been part of the flotilla.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy view is that \u2026 women should be believed in these allegations, which are confronting and distressing, should be dealt with respectfully and seriously, and that is what we will do: I don\u2019t intend, in this forum, to go into these issues any further.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three members of the flotilla \u2013 including Lamont \u2013 held a press conference at parliament house on Thursday, asking for a meeting with the foreign and prime ministers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really glad that Penny [Wong] recently said that she believes us,\u201d Lamont said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the extension of that is she needs to meet with us, she needs to hear our testimony and she needs to sanction Israel. What other country would be allowed to rape and torture 11 ordinary citizens from this country and get away from it?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Israeli embassy in Australia issued a statement last week<\/a> saying the flotilla was \u201corganised for provocation rather than humanitarian concern\u201d, and alleging some on board were \u201cwell-known agitators\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe provocateurs were neither tortured nor raped. Such claims are entirely baseless and are intended solely to advance the provocateurs\u2019 smear campaign against Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong was also asked at Senate estimates about Australia\u2019s broader relationship with Israel. She rejected the assertion she had described Israel as an \u201cally\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not a phrase I use because we don\u2019t have an alliance. We have alliance partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong said Australia was currently experiencing \u201cone of the most challenging times\u201d in the history of its relationship with Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia is strongly opposed to many of the actions of the Netanyahu government and we have been clear about that opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Netanyahu, and some of his colleagues, have had plenty to say about our government, and about Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong said Australia had raised with Israel concerns about violence in Gaza and illegal settlements in the West Bank. She condemned the lack of progress in investigations into the death of the Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom<\/a> and her colleagues, who were killed by the IDF.<\/p>\n

Wong also decried the refusal to allow Australian diplomats to undertake work in Palestine, the damage to Australian veterans\u2019 war graves in Gaza<\/a> and the alleged mistreatment of Australian citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, this is a pattern of behaviour, which makes it difficult to \u2026 unless the pattern of behaviour changes, it is very difficult to see the relationship changing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says she believes the Australian women who have alleged they were sexually…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-475723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}