Italian Member of the European Parliament Benedetta Scuderi said Monday that she and other participants in the Global Sumud Flotilla were detained and abused by Israeli forces after the aid convoy was intercepted in international waters.

Speaking at the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg, Scuderi said five MEPs, including herself, were among roughly 400 activists whose ships were stormed and forcibly redirected to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

She said detainees were deprived of food, water, rest and medical access, and in some cases beaten.

Scuderi described the flotilla as a peaceful, humanitarian effort aimed at delivering supplies to Gaza’s besieged population enduring severe shortages under Israel’s blockade.

She condemned European governments and institutions for their silence, saying the activists had done what political leaders lacked the courage to do — challenge Israel’s inhumane siege and stand for international law.

Scuderi added that several participants, including French MEPs Rima Hassan and Emma Fourreau, remained unaccounted for, while another ship carrying European activists, including French MEP Melissa Camara, was still en route to Gaza.

She urged the European Union to defend democratic principles and human rights by backing the flotilla’s mission instead of bowing to Israeli pressure.

Scuderi’s political group, the Greens, later called for Israel’s attack on the flotilla and the unlawful detention of its participants to be added to the Parliament’s agenda, but the motion was rejected — a move critics said underscored Europe’s moral paralysis in the face of Israeli aggression.