Australian activist alleges Israeli forces digitally raped him after he refused to kiss flag

An Australian man detained while trying to deliver aid to Gaza says Israeli soldiers digitally raped him and beat him unconscious for refusing to kiss the Israeli flag.

Ethan Floyd, 22, will tell the Australian Federal Police he was subjected to a full-body strip search on an Israeli prison ship where a soldier inserted his fingers into his anus. “It wasn't part of a cavity search; it was penetrative sexual assault in the view of others,” he said.

Floyd is secretary of the NSW Young Greens and ran on the party’s Senate ticket last year. He spent two days on the ship before being released onto the Greek island of Crete.

He said other flotilla members were penetrated with penises and the tips of guns. The AFP has begun inquiries into allegations of rape, torture and brutalisation by 11 Australians detained by Israel during the Global Sumud Flotilla, an attempt to break the blockade of Gaza’s coastline.

“The evidence will bear out that we were sexually assaulted, beaten and tortured,” Floyd said. He pointed to hospital records in Greece and Turkey showing bruises, scratches and other injuries.

He said he saw Israeli troops shoot three participants with rubber bullets after navy commanders stormed their vessel near Greece on April 29. Their wounds became infected with maggots.

“They demanded I kiss the Israeli flag and beat me when I refused. I received a concussion after my head was smashed into a shipping container,” he said.

“I don't want to see him called in for a rebuke, I want him kicked out of the country,” Floyd said of Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, who has claimed flotilla members were treated with “great sensitivity”.

Juliet Lamont, another activist, alleged she was raped by an Israeli soldier, beaten and cable-tied. Neve O’Connor said troops kicked and kneed her in the head repeatedly and stomped on her fingers.

After meeting Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Canberra on Monday, Lamont said she “definitely believes we were kidnapped, that we were tortured and that we were imprisoned and that some of us were raped”.

Israel’s embassy in Canberra accused the activists of “running a PR anti-Israel campaign” and “categorically rejects all their false allegations”. It said no formal complaints had been submitted.

Greens Senator David Shoebridge said he would watch the AFP inquiry closely, including its timeframe, resourcing and transparency. He called for the Albanese government to demand Israel provide body-worn camera and closed-circuit footage.

Australia’s investigation follows separate official probes launched by prosecutors in Italy and France.

But legal experts say getting charges laid in Australia will be tough. Australian National University international law expert Don Rothwell said the alleged mistreatment happened outside Australia, so any charges would need to be treated as a war crime or crime against humanity. “On the basis of what we know, it would be very difficult to reach that threshold,” he said.

University of Sydney international law professor Ben Saul, a UN special rapporteur on human rights, said the war crimes of rape, sexual violence and outrages against dignity could apply but the prospect of a conviction in Australia appeared “remote”.

The government likely hopes the AFP inquiry will pressure Israel to conduct its own thorough and independent investigation, Rothwell said.

Floyd said he would fully co-operate with the AFP and argued Israel had predictably tried to dismiss the testimony as a political stunt. He said the investigation “could be a breakthrough but only if we refuse to let it become theatre”.