Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg said she endured physical abuse, humiliation, and threats of being “gassed in a cage” while detained by Israeli forces after the interception of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla last month.

She was among 450 activists aboard the flotilla, a humanitarian mission comprising more than 40 vessels seeking to break the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip and deliver essential supplies — including food, water, and medicine.

Her interview was published by Aftonbladet, a Swedish daily tabloid newspaper, where Thunberg said that she doesn’t want headlines about herself and the torture she says she was subjected to.

Thunberg and other activists from the flotilla shared details about their five-day captivity in Israel and how they were left without help by the Swedish foreign ministry.

“This is not about me or the others from the flotilla. There are thousands of Palestinians, hundreds of whom are children, who are being held without trial right now, and many of them are most likely being tortured,” Aftonbladet quoted Thunberg.

She emphasised that the story is about international solidarity, about people coming together to do the work that governments are not doing.

“And above all, it’s about the people who live in Gaza. This shows that if Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a well-known, white person with a Swedish passport this way, just imagine what they do to Palestinians behind closed doors.”

After the Israeli military seized her boat, they were taken to the lower deck where they were made to sit in a circle without moving while the boat was taken ashore. Several witnesses interviewed by Aftonbladet describe how the weapons were pointed at their faces.

“It was extremely hot down there. We just sat there. Those who weren’t guarding us walked around the boat, tearing things apart and throwing everything around.”

Thunberg said that she was unaware of what happened to the food, medicine, diapers, and infant formula — the aid for Gaza.

After about 20 hours, they arrived in Ashdod, Israel’s largest industrial port, 40 kilometres south of Tel Aviv. A soldier pointed at Thunberg and said: “You first, come on!” she recounts.

She was not allowed to wear her T-shirt with “Free Palestine” on it and was ordered to change, she explains. She put on an orange one with the text “Decolonize” instead.

Thunberg recounted being dragged to a paved area enclosed by iron fencing — an ordeal that, according to her and several flotilla participants interviewed by Aftonbladet, continued for more than six hours.

She was separated from others and repeatedly assaulted while wrapped in a flag. She said officers tore off her frog-shaped hat, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it in apparent anger.

According to Thunberg, she was then dragged to a corner, facing the wall, where one officer mockingly said: “A special place for a special lady.”

She and other Swedish participants told Aftonbladet that anyone who lifted their head was forced down again.

In the corner where Thunberg sat, officers placed a flag so close that it brushed against her — and each time it did, they shouted at her and kicked her. Eventually, her hands were bound tightly with cable ties as several guards posed for selfies beside her.

Thunberg recounted undergoing repeated interrogations, during which officials pressured her to sign documents admitting she had entered Israel illegally — a claim she refused to acknowledge. After declining, she said her hands were once again bound with cable ties, her eyes blindfolded, and she was placed in a cramped vehicle cell for the night.

“It was freezing cold,” she recalled. “We were only wearing T-shirts.”

According to Thunberg, upon arrival at the detention facility, she was ordered to undress while being filmed and subjected to mocking remarks.

“They handled us roughly; it was all very humiliating,” she said, adding that detainees’ essential medicines — including heart and cancer treatments as well as insulin — were discarded in front of them.

Inside the prison, she described a mural covering an entire wall depicting a bombed Gaza scene with fleeing civilians and the words “The new Gaza” written beside a large Israeli flag.

At one point, around 60 people were put in a small cage outdoors, in the middle of the sun, according to several participants of the flotilla. Most of them did not have enough room to sit down.

“When people fainted, we banged on the cages and asked for a doctor. Then the guards came and said, ‘We’re going to gas you.’ It was standard for them to say that. They held up a gas cylinder and threatened to press it against us.”

At the port, the Swedish detainees were granted only a brief five-minute consultation with a lawyer before being denied further legal access. It was not until Friday that three representatives from the Swedish embassy in Tel Aviv were permitted to meet them — in an outdoor holding cage under strict supervision.

According to her, the response was that their job was to listen to them. Then it took two days before the embassy staff showed up again.

Finally, the Swedish group decided, in the presence of the embassy staff, to refuse to return to their cells until they were given water, according to several witnesses that Aftonbladet has spoken to. But then the embassy staff wanted to leave the prison, they claim.

Several participants reported that a female activist became enraged and kicked the trash can where the guards had thrown their water bottles. Bottles spilled onto the floor, and Greta and the others threw themselves on the floor and hurried to open the bottles and drink the water left behind by the guards.

“The embassy staff see this but continue walking anyway.”

On the same day the flotilla participants were freed after five days in detention, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told local media it was “very foolish” to travel to Gaza despite prior warnings.

However, Aftonbladet’s review of emails sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to relatives — compared with testimonies given by detainees to embassy officials — suggests the gravity of the situation was downplayed.

The ministry’s description of events at the port, where Greta Thunberg says she was beaten for hours, merely stated: “She reported harsh treatment and said she had been sitting on a hard surface for a long time.”

Three other flotilla members who spoke to Aftonbladet largely corroborated Thunberg’s account, each describing experiences of physical abuse and humiliation. Relatives of the detainees also expressed strong criticism of the Swedish embassy’s response.