Australian documentary maker Juliet Lamont, 54, has vowed to return to Gaza despite what she describes as beatings, groping and verbal abuse by Israeli prison guards. Lamont was among hundreds of international activists detained after attempting to break the Israeli siege of Gaza by delivering aid on the Global Sumud flotilla.
Lamont said she was taken to Ketziot prison in the Negev desert, where she saw a sign reading: 'The eternal state never forgets and will pursue its enemies till the end.' She recalled being confined in a small cell with 15 other women, where guards brought dogs and trained machine guns on them. She also alleged that upon interception, she was cable-tied, forced below deck, and denied food, water and toilet access for nine hours.
At the port of Ashdod, Lamont said she was stripped and cavity-searched, and her breasts and buttocks were groped by male guards. She was denied medication for high blood pressure. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir labelled the activists 'terrorists' and 'the enemy of Israel'.
Another Australian activist, Dr Bianca Webb-Pullman, 52, from Melbourne, described a drone strike on her boat and the humiliation of Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. She said women were denied sanitary products and left to bleed through their clothes. Webb-Pullman saw a poster of a destroyed Gaza with the caption 'the new Gaza', which she said was targeted at Palestinian prisoners.
Both women were released and deported to Jordan early Tuesday morning. Lamont said she would try again to 'break the siege' on Gaza, despite the 'humiliations' she endured.
