British nationals who were detained by Israeli forces while sailing toward Gaza in May 2026 are considering legal action against the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, after their families and legal representatives say the department repeatedly ignored their calls for help during a three-day ordeal that included beatings, sexual abuse, and confinement in shipping containers.
The activists were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a Gaza-bound aid convoy intercepted by Israeli forces on 18 May in international waters. Following their deportation to Turkey, participants and their families told Middle East Eye that the Foreign Office had met nearly every attempt at contact with automated responses or silence — contradicting Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper’s public claim that the government had been supporting families throughout.
Mary Mason, the legal lead for the flotilla’s British delegation, said her team had notified the Foreign Office of the activists’ plans before their departure and asked for protection. They received an automated response.
When the flotilla was intercepted, Mason contacted the department again. “I got no reply. I think in all, I wrote four emails, and then attempted to call them several times. Quite a lot of participants called, very few got through. One or two did, and they were fobbed off,” she told Middle East Eye.
Mason said the delegation is now considering taking legal action against the Foreign Office for failing to protect the activists. “If they are talking with us, then we might come to some agreement with them, but if we came to any agreement with them, it would include a public statement,” she said.
Cooper’s Statement Disputed
In a post on X, Cooper stated that the Foreign Office was “in touch with the families of a number of British nationals involved to provide them with consular support.” She added that the government had “demanded an explanation from the Israeli authorities and made clear their obligations to protect the rights of our citizens and all those involved.”
But flotilla participants and their families reported that their first contact from the FCDO came only the day after Cooper’s statement was published.
Flotilla activist Cerie Bullivant rejected Cooper’s account outright. “I’ve spoken to most of the other families, if not all of them. They had reached out to the government and got no response from them, and the Foreign Office hadn’t reached out to us at all,” Bullivant told Middle East Eye.
Bullivant said that when his wife contacted the FCDO, she was told they could not speak to her because they did not have his permission to do so. The first contact his family received from the department came on Monday, 1 June — more than a week after his detention — when staff emailed asking for Bullivant’s contact details.
“I’d been kidnapped at that time and I’m literally being tortured by people, so how am I going to get in touch with them to give them permission?” Bullivant said.
An FCDO spokesperson told Middle East Eye: “We were appalled by the treatment of the British nationals aboard the flotilla, and summoned the Israeli Charge d’Affaires to make this clear. We continue to raise our concerns about the treatment of flotilla participants and the lack of consular access provided with the Israeli government.”
Middle East Eye contacted Israeli authorities for comment but received no response by the time of publication.
Conditions During Detention
After being intercepted on 18 May, the activists were zip-tied and placed aboard two container ships — described by detainees as “prison ships” — one blue and one red. Around 200 people were forced to sleep on the floor of a single container, without sleeping mats or bedding. Israeli guards routinely flooded the floors and dropped boxes of stale bread and bottles of water inside. After repeated requests, guards threw in one pack of sanitary towels for all female detainees.
Bullivant described the moment Israeli soldiers boarded his vessel. “They put me face down on the ship with my hands flat down on the floor,” he told Middle East Eye. He said he could hear other activists screaming as he was tasered in the neck.
The ship’s captain was shot in the leg after walking too close to what he described as “some invisible line” in a small open space aboard the vessel. “It created this massive gash inside her leg,” Bullivant said. “She was screaming: ‘I don’t want to die here.'” Flotilla medics cleaned and bound her leg, demanding medical attention. When she arrived in Turkey three days later, she required surgery and was kept in hospital for several days.
At the Israeli port of Ashdod, Bullivant said violence intensified. Activists were led out of containers individually and beaten. “People, just as they passed you, would either kick you with their steel toe cap boots in the shins or just punch you in the face, and that was the bare minimum at Ashdod,” he said.
Around 74 activists sustained broken bones during the ordeal, most of them broken ribs, according to Middle East Eye’s reporting.
One Family’s Account
Hady Mohamed Fatouh Mohamed Awad, whose brother Karim was aboard the flotilla, told Middle East Eye he had contacted the Foreign Office immediately after the interception. “They told us they were aware of the situation, but there was nothing they could do,” Awad said.
FCDO staff assured Awad that they would meet Karim at the port of Ashdod. No further contact followed.
Videos then emerged from Ashdod of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir taunting detained activists, showing them with their hands bound and crouching in stress positions.
“As a family member, seeing something like that is distressing beyond imagination,” Awad said. “You don’t know what’s going on, you don’t know if he’s alive or not. And I’m talking to the FCDO and I’m not getting anything.”
Karim Awad said an Israeli soldier twisted a Palestinian flag around his neck and used it as a shroud over his face during the interception. At Ashdod, he said he was beaten by around five soldiers, kicked in the groin and the head until he lost consciousness. He was then paraded before Ben Gvir with other detainees, zip-tied and crouching, as the Israeli national anthem played over loudspeakers. Any detainee who called for help or a medic, he said, was slapped or had their head stomped on.
Consular Response Described as “Just for Show”
When the activists arrived at Istanbul airport, a British consulate representative was present with a list, ticking off names. Awad said he was given no money or phone, and had to contact his family through a friend in Istanbul.
Ben Trowell, the flotilla’s press lead, said the consular staff who met them offered no practical assistance beyond lending their personal phones. “They said the instructions we’ve been given is that you can borrow a phone, but we cannot help with flights, we cannot give you any money,” Trowell told Middle East Eye. “There was no point in them attending at all. It was all just for show.”
Mason was blunt about the consulate’s performance in Istanbul. “They didn’t have clothes, they were cold, they’d been beaten up quite badly. The British consulate did absolutely nothing. They didn’t give them any money, they didn’t even give them a cup of tea,” she said.
Bullivant said he tried three times to report a sexual assault he had witnessed of another British national to a consular staff member. Each time, the staff member walked away. “As soon as they collected the names, I didn’t see them again,” he said.
When the group returned to Stansted Airport in Essex, Trowell said they were met with a heavy police presence. He had booked a room at the Hilton Stansted for a press conference, but said police instructed the hotel to cancel the booking, telling the venue the group were planning a protest. Essex Police did not respond to a request for comment from Middle East Eye.
Awad, back in the UK, attempted to file a police complaint about his treatment in Israeli custody. Police directed him to the FCDO. He said that when he called the department, the line kept disconnecting each time he began to recount what had happened to him.
Background
The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail in May 2026 as part of ongoing international efforts to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid. Israeli forces intercepted the convoy on 18 May in international waters, detaining hundreds of international activists. An earlier vessel linked to the flotilla was intercepted off the Greek coast in April, according to Middle East Eye. The detention of foreign nationals — including British, Brazilian, and other EU citizens — drew condemnation from several governments. France subsequently banned Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir following the release of videos showing him taunting the detained activists at Ashdod. The UK summoned the Israeli Charge d’Affaires but stopped short of imposing formal penalties on Israeli officials.
What Happens Next
Mason said the legal delegation is actively considering filing a formal legal claim against the Foreign Office. Any settlement, she said, would require a public statement from the government. The FCDO has said it continues to raise concerns about the treatment of flotilla participants with Israeli authorities, though no timeline or mechanism for that process has been made public. Awad has attempted to pursue a formal police complaint about his detention conditions, but has so far been redirected without resolution. Middle East Eye reported on 9 June 2026 that no response had been received from Israeli authorities on the activists’ allegations of abuse.
