On May 18, 2026, Israeli authorities arrested Ignacio Ladrón de Guevara, a freelance journalist and El País newspaper contributor, while sailing aboard the Ramle, one of the vessels in the Global Sumud Flotilla, a series of aid convoys attempting to break the blockade in Gaza.
Ladrón de Guevara was among the hundreds of flotilla participants deported to Istanbul, Turkey, on May 21, after three days and three nights in Israeli custody.
In a first-person account for El País, Ladrón de Guevara wrote that after Israeli forces boarded the boat he was on, detainees were transferred to an Israeli military vessel, searched, stripped of their passports, and held in a dark, wet metal container.
“Then the beatings began,” wrote Ladrón de Guevara. He said Israeli naval forces “hit and kicked” the detainees, used tasers on some activists, stepped on their knees and ankles, and grabbed others by the genitals.
Ladrón de Guevara wrote that detainees were later forced to kneel under the sun on the hot deck while the Israeli anthem played repeatedly. At Ashdod port, he said police kept detainees handcuffed and kneeling for hours. During an immigration procedure, he wrote that a police officer placed an Israeli flag in front of him, another officer removed his green socks, saying green was “the color of Hamas,” and slapped him twice.
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel – told CPJ that Israeli authorities failed to treat journalists aboard the flotillas in accordance with their professional role and violated their right to report. Adalah added that this not only infringed on the journalists’ individual rights, but also undermined press freedom and the public’s right to information.
CPJ emailed the Israel Defense Forces on June 9, 2026, requesting comment on the detention and treatment of journalists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, but did not immediately receive a response.