Three flotilla activists detained in Israel arrive back in Vancouver

RICHMOND — Three activists whose Gaza-bound aid flotilla was intercepted in international waters by Israeli forces have returned home to Vancouver, with one of them saying they went through four days of continuous beatings and torture.

Sebastian Tow, Michael France and Mary Grace Mathisen were surrounded and greeted Sunday by hundreds of supporters, family and friends, with tears and hugs filling the arrival hall of Vancouver International Airport.

Tow, from Vancouver, said the flotilla group was kidnapped in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea by Israeli forces, and every one of them was dragged aboard prison ships and beaten.

He said the torture left him with several Taser burns and bruises on his body, but many people suffered worse. For example, on his prison ship alone, he said there were more than 30 cases of broken and fractured ribs.

“We never knew, and we barely ever had the chance to speak about what was going to happen next with one another, and how to respond to what would happen next,” said Tow.

“There were a lot of times where I’d be thinking, will it be extreme violence in the next five minutes, or will it be more waiting?”

The Canadians were among 420 people on 41 boats intercepted by Israel as they attempted to bring a symbolic amount of aid to Gaza amid Israel’s restrictions.

Global Sumud Flotilla, the movement’s organizer, said 12 Canadians, including the three who returned to B.C., were detained. Others have been arriving home over the weekend in Montreal and Toronto.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Friday she had received details from her officials in Turkey about “appalling abuse” suffered by Canadians on board the flotilla, but provided no details of the accounts. Israeli prison officials have denied any abuse.

Tow said elderly members of the flotilla were beaten, some badly injured, and were deprived of any medication.

“We had nothing but stale and frozen bread, and hardly enough water to keep anybody going for two days on the prison ships,” said Tow.

After the Canadians were detained, Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, released a video of himself taunting the activists while they were kneeling, and had their faces to the ground with their hands bound.

Global Affairs Canada said it has summoned Iddo Moed, the Israeli ambassador in Canada, and condemned the “mistreatment of civilians and demanded that those responsible for this egregious abuse be held responsible.”

Tow said after spending two days on prison ships, the detainees were taken to the Port of Ashdod in southern Israel, where they were forced to kneel in the hot sun for hours.

Later, they were transferred to Quetzion Prison, a maximum-security Israeli detention camp in the Negev Desert, before being deported to Turkey, said Tow. He said about 100 of them were shoved into a cage full of razor wire, while Ben-Gvir shouted and jeered at them.

Tow said he wasn’t intimidated and looked Ben-Gvir in the eyes.

“And whatever I could see there, I think there was a grain of truth in his warped and distorted mind, and that was he was afraid because he saw us,” said Tow.

“And he knew that despite all his riot gear, all his guns, his assault rifles, his flash bangs, all his cages, we were winning because we didn’t even let him speak before we started whistling ‘Bella Ciao’ and chanting ‘Free Palestine.'”

He said the activists understand that the four days were only a tiny fraction of “what Palestinians have to live under all of their lives.”

Anita Whittenberg, Tow’s mother, hugged her son for several minutes at the airport, saying she initially thought he would be kept in prison for more than ten days, but the public outcry helped him to be released more quickly.

“I was overwhelmed by the support we received from all of our friends and family, and people beyond that just wrote letters, did actions, stood at offices, and I think it made a difference,” said Whittenberg, who called for Canadians to pressure the federal government to demand sanctions against Israel.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 24, 2026. F

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press