{"id":478182,"date":"2026-06-05T19:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/478182\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T19:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:32:13","slug":"france-opens-war-crime-probe-over-israels-treatment-of-flotilla-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/478182\/","title":{"rendered":"France opens ‘war crime’ probe over Israel’s treatment of flotilla activists"},"content":{"rendered":"

France has opened an investigation into an alleged \u201cwar crime\u201d as well as \u201ctorture\u201d over Israel\u2019s treatment of French citizens who took part in the recent Gaza-bound activist flotilla, a prosecutor\u2019s office said Friday.<\/p>\n

The probe was opened at the government\u2019s request, the national counterterrorism prosecutor\u2019s office (PNAT) said, after activists accused Israeli authorities of mistreatment during their detention last month.<\/p>\n

Israel detained more than 430 activists from countries around the world after intercepting them in international waters<\/a> beginning on May 18 as they made the latest in a string of attempts to break Israel\u2019s blockade of the territory.<\/p>\n

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir then sparked widespread condemnation, both in Israel and abroad, after he posted a video<\/a> mocking the flotilla activists while they were bound and kneeling.<\/p>\n

France was one of multiple countries to ban Ben Gvir from entry<\/a> over the incident.<\/p>\n

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Several French activists described what they said was a violent and humiliating ordeal when eight of them returned to France on May 22. Two of the more than 30 French citizens who were on board the flotilla were still hospitalized in Turkey, they told reporters.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tNational Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir taunts detained flotilla activists at Ashdod Port on May 20, 2026. (Screen grab\/Ben Gvir\u2019s X account)<\/p>\n

One returnee described a soldier groping and slapping her in a dark container, and being terrified that she would be raped.<\/p>\n

Another recounted detained activists being put in what she called a \u201cstress position,\u201d on their knees with their foreheads on the ground for several hours, while the Israeli national anthem played on repeat.<\/p>\n

The Israel Prison Service has previously denied the flotilla activists\u2019 claims of abuse, saying all of those detained were held \u201cin accordance with the law, with full regard for their basic rights,\u201d and received necessary and professional medical care.<\/p>\n

Asked by AFP to respond to the claims of physical and psychological violence, sexual harassment, assault and rape, the Israel Prison Service said the accusations were \u201centirely without factual basis.\u201d<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France has opened an investigation into an alleged \u201cwar crime\u201d as well as \u201ctorture\u201d over Israel\u2019s treatment of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[221798,8319,85,46,837,43],"class_list":["post-478182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-french-court","tag-global-sumud-flotilla","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-itamar-ben-gvir","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478182","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=478182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}