Anne Rochat, a Swiss survivor of the Gaza flotilla.picture: assembly watson
During the interception of the Gaza flotilla, the Swiss Anne Rochat reports that she suffered violence, humiliation and threats in Israel for several days.
May 22, 2026, 2:33 p.mMay 22, 2026, 2:35 p.m
After four days in which she was cut off from the outside world, the Swiss Anne Rochat reported on Thursday evening in the RTS broadcast forum. She described the hell and violence that the members of the “Global Sumud Flotilla” (“sumud” means “resilience” in Arabic) experienced in Israel.
Arriving on board in Turkey, around 430 activists on around 50 boats with the Gaza Flotilla wanted to draw attention to the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated after more than two years of war, and to break the naval blockade imposed by Israel. The flotilla was stopped on Monday by the Israeli army in the Mediterranean southwest of Cyprus.
translation
This text was written by our colleagues from French-speaking Switzerland and we translated it for you.
The arrest
After Israel intercepted them, the activists were first taken to a prison ship. “That’s when hell began,” says Lausanne artist Anne Rochat on RTS radio from Istanbul on Thursday evening: “We spent two days and three nights there.” She continues:
“You get on the ship, they twist your arms behind your back, push you to the ground, spit in your face, pour water on you – some were thrown to the ground and their ribs were broken.”
The activists were later checked and searched. The woman from French-speaking Switzerland reports on the check of her passport. She says she was searched and held by a man:
“He touched me all over my body.”
After passport control, the activists ended up in a hall where, according to the representative of the flotilla’s Swiss delegation, there was only one toilet for 200 people:
“In these containers they shoot rubber bullets at you. Something new happens every hour.”
She says that there were around forty suspected cases of arm or rib fractures during these three days. The Swiss woman continues:
“Twelve people came forward to report sexual abuse.”
According to Anne Rochat, around ten prisoners are said to have been injured with electric shockers and rubber bullets.
Death threats and rape
“When we came ashore, the violence and intimidation continued,” the Swiss woman added to RTS. The activists spent the day on their knees. The pictures of this have been going around the world since Wednesday.
That day, Israel’s Interior Minister for Internal Security, the right-wing extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, caused outrage internationally and within his government by releasing a video of these attacks on the prisoners.
Israeli Police Minister Ben-Gvir provokes on X by humiliating Gaza Aid Fleet activists.Video: Watson/Lucas Zollinger
The Swiss woman confirms: “We were there.” She continues: “You try to calm yourself down, but as soon as you move you can get hit, pulled to the ground, or even dragged from one place to another by your hair. You never know where you are.”
“This is really a picture of hell.”
Afterwards, some activists were able to see lawyers before a bus took them to the Ktziot prison “in complete darkness,” said the Lausanne woman. There, Anne Rochat reports on intimidation by Israeli soldiers and death and rape threats in the last 24 hours.
It is not the first time that Anne Rochat has had this experience. She had already been arrested by the Israeli army during an earlier attempt to reach Gaza – on a different flotilla. However, the Lausanne artist emphasizes that she has to act, even if she is aware that “it remains symbolic”.
Other Swiss affected
According to the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, eight Swiss nationals took part in the expedition. They were returned to Turkey. On Tuesday evening, an Instagram message from Global Sumud Switzerland showed a total of seven Swiss people, all of whom were said to have been arrested. Originally, nine were part of the expedition, but two decided not to continue “after the attacks off the coast of Greece.”
The Lausanne artist Anne Rochat and the Sion general councilor Marie Morard were among the Swiss women who were intercepted at sea. The Sion local council expressed concern on Thursday about the conditions in which the Valais politician is being held. In a statement, Sitten called on the Swiss authorities, as guardians of the Geneva Conventions, to intervene with the utmost force with the Israeli authorities to ensure respect for human dignity. (yes/at)