STOCKHOLM, Oct 8 — Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has alleged that she and other detainees of the Gaza flotilla were subjected to torture in the Israeli prison where they were held.
Thunberg told a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden that she and others were "kidnapped and tortured" by the Israeli military.
She declined to elaborate, adding when pressed that she did not get clean water and that other detainees were deprived of critical medication.
"Personally, I do not want to share what I was subjected to because I do not want it to make headlines and 'Greta has been tortured', because that is not the story here," Thunberg said, adding that what they were subjected to paled in comparison to what people in Gaza experienced daily.
Israel's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, but has repeatedly denied mistreating the detainees.
"All detainees ... were given access to water, food, and restrooms; they were not denied access to legal counsel, and all their legal rights were fully upheld," a ministry spokesman told Reuters last week.
Thunberg was part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a group of vessels that tried to reach Gaza to bring aid supplies and draw attention to the plight of the enclave, where most of the 2.2 million residents have been driven from their homes, and where the United Nations says hunger is rampant.
She was detained along with 478 people in the flotilla and expelled from Israel on Monday.
Israel, which says reports of hunger in Gaza are exaggerated, has dismissed the flotilla as a publicity stunt benefiting the Palestinian militant group Hamas. It had previously detained Thunberg at sea in a similar attempt to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza in June.
On Saturday, Swedish activists said that Thunberg was shoved and forced to wear an Israeli flag during her detention, but she made no mention of it during Tuesday's press conference.
Thunberg and other participants also complained that the Swedish government had not provided them with sufficient support while they were detained.
In a statement on Tuesday, the government said that it had repeatedly advised against all travel to Gaza, but that it had nevertheless provided consular support to the activists and stressed to Israel the importance of treating Swedish citizens well.
