“I took the beatings, Dario Carotenuto took the beatings, others took more beatings than us. I saw people with suspected fractures of the arms and ribs. Almost everyone who passed through the entrance container was beaten and we heard the screams from outside. Even the boardings were much more violent than in the past.” This is how Alessandro Mantovani, journalist from Fatto Quotidiano, recounts what happened after being stopped by Israel, together with all the other 429 activists of the Flotilla.
Meanwhile, the controversy continues over the images posted by Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, which show those arrested being mocked while they were kneeling and blindfolded. “An uncivilized treatment of people stopped illegally”, said the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, who defined the Israeli minister’s gesture as “vile”. “Unacceptable, the red line has been crossed”, say Prime Minister Meloni and Minister Tajani, who “demand an apology” and summon the Israeli ambassador. Decision taken by other European countries, such as France and Spain.
Mantovani’s story
Today Mantovani and the deputy of the 5 Star Movement Dario Carotenuto returned to Italy. During the night they stopped in Athens and there, thanks to a telephone made available by the Italian embassy, Mantovani was able to contact his family and the editorial staff of Il Fatto. He then recounted what happened, from the first hours of boarding the fishing vessel Kasr-I Sadabad, on which he was with Carotenuto, until their return. “We were among the last to be boarded – he said -. The Israeli forces fired several shots at our boat, I couldn’t say what type of bullets, to make us put on the bow. Then once picked up we were taken with a corvette to the second prison ship”.
And he continued: “There we were chained and handcuffed, I was stripped, they threw away my eyeglasses and left me in my bathing suit. We were beaten and kicked, us even less than the others: I could hear the screams of the activists, someone definitely broke a few ribs. On that second container ship almost everyone who arrived, there were about 180 of us, got hit.” Then Mantovani, who was assigned number 164, was picked up, together with number 147, i.e. Carotenuto, and together they were transferred, before even arriving at the port of Ashdod, to a police cell in Ben Gurion airport, where they received initial assistance from the embassy.
Carotenuto: “I heard women report violence”
Dario Carotenuto is also very shaken: “I received an eyesore that blinded me for a while. But I saw people with ear and eye problems. I heard women reporting sexual violence. We are very worried about the activists who are still there and we don’t know what they are suffering.” The ship they were traveling on, they say, was in international waters, heading towards Egypt: “They forced us to sign papers that contained untrue statements”, the 5 Star MP tells Il Fatto. “We were one hundred miles from Port Said – continues Mantovani -, 180 miles from Gaza, when we were boarded by the Israelis”.