Israel illegally detained UK citizens, and Starmer did nothing

Posted: 10th October 2025

Israel illegally detained UK citizens, and Starmer did nothing

This week, Israeli forces kidnapped British citizens participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla, which aimed to break the siege of Gaza and deliver aid to starving Palestinians.

The flotilla, carrying some 470 activists from over 40 countries, had been sailing in international waters some 90 nautical miles from Gaza when it was approached by Israeli naval boats and boarded by armed soldiers.

The aid vessels were subsequently towed to the port of Ashdod in Israel, where the activists were unloaded and taken to Israeli prisons.

Most of them were transferred to the notorious Ketziot prison, a maximum-security facility in the Negev desert which has served as a detention and torture site for Palestinian captives.

The cells were infested with bed bugs, and the activists were deprived of food and water. “We had to drink out of a tap in the toilets that produced water infected with fecal matter”, said British-Palestinian journalist Kieran Andrieu.

Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who travelled to Ketziot and taunted the activists, said they “should get a good feel for the conditions in Ketziot prison and think twice before they approach Israel again”.

This was not the first time that the Global Sumud Flotilla had been attacked by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

Weeks earlier, drones had appeared and dropped incendiary devices on two of the vessels while they were sailing off the coast of Tunisia. The government did not respond to Declassified’s requests for comment, despite the incident threatening the lives of British citizens.

It was subsequently revealed that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, had personally approved the attacks.

The UK government’s refusal to criticise or even comment on Israel’s drone strikes likely emboldened Tel Aviv to mistreat the British activists once the vessels had been intercepted.

Malcolm Ducker, a 72-year-old former fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, was treated particularly badly.

“We were held for six days without access to legal representation or essential medication”, he told the press outside Heathrow airport. “There was a constant threat of physical violence with dogs and guns. Many had guns put straight into their faces”.

Ducker was also scathing about the UK government’s lack of consular support.

The Foreign Office “basically said: you’re on your own”, Ducker declared. “They achieved absolutely nothing. This was in stark contrast to the support given by the Spanish, Italian, Greek, and Turkish consuls”.

This was no exaggeration. A spokesperson for Keir Starmer had said earlier in the week that the detention of British citizens in international waters was a “matter for the Israeli government”.

Ducker’s daughter responded to these comments by telling Declassified that Starmer had “shirked” his responsibility. “Obviously it’s a matter for the British government – and what a let down for a man who served his country all those years ago”.

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