Illegal Siege, Brutal Abuse: Our Detention and Assault at the Hands of Israeli Prison Guards

Two Gaza flotilla members describe their abduction and abuse by Israel last fall.

In April, a new flotilla set off for Gaza, once again attempting to break the Israeli siege. Late Thursday, Israeli forces intercepted 22 vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla. More than 170 participants were detained before being taken to the Greek island of Crete. Two participants were taken to Israel for questioning.

Journalist Noa Avishag Schnall covered last year’s flotilla for Drop Site, before it was illegally boarded in international waters, all participants were abducted by Israeli forces, and Noa was abused in Israeli detention. On board the Conscience, she met German journalist Anna Liedtke. Liedtke, too, was abducted by Israeli forces and raped by female guards during her time in Israeli custody, abuse she first made public in December 2025 via the women’s organization ZORA.

The brutal treatment came despite—or, perhaps, because of—the fact that Liedtke is from Germany, a country unapologetically supportive of Israel no matter what it does to Palestinians or even to Germans, and Schnall is American and Jewish, a fluent Hebrew speaker of Yemeni descent who had renounced her Israeli citizenship. The detention of those aboard the Conscience straddled negotiations over the so-called ceasefire, likely also contributing to the increasingly violent mood of the Israeli guards.

As another flotilla embarks, we asked Noa and Anna for a first-person reported account of their time on the water and in detention. They both wanted to be clear that the abuse they endured pales in comparison to that meted out on a daily basis to the some 10,000 Palestinians in custody, many of them held indefinitely without charge. Thirty-two Palestinian prisoners died in detention in 2025, and at least one has already died this year.

A first-person account with two authors creates unusual narrative challenges, but we wanted to explore the format, and Noa and Anna agreed to collaborate on the piece you’re reading below. The article is based on their observations as well as their additional reporting based on documents linked to their detention. When they were separated, the piece makes clear whose perspective is being shared.

What follows is the story of how the Israeli government treated two journalists from the two nations most supportive of its genocide. The Israeli government did not respond to a request for comment.

Noa, meanwhile, is covering this year’s flotilla for Drop Site News. Follow her updates on Instagram or our Drop Site social channels.

—Ryan Grim

We are publishing two versions of this story. You can read the longer version here.

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Illegal Siege, Brutal Abuse: Our Detention and Assault at the Hands of Israeli Prison Guards