Greta Thunberg returned from the Global Sumud flotilla bearing more than bruises — she brought a searing account of physical violence and deliberate humiliation that, she and fellow activists say, reflect a systematic architecture of abuse in Israeli detention.

“They grab me, pull me to the ground, and throw an Israeli flag over me,” Thunberg told Swedish outlet Aftonbladet, describing guards who “hit and kicked me” and taunted her with slurs: “’ Lilla hora’ [little whore] and ‘Hora Greta’ [whore Greta] … which they repeated all the time.”

Her story is granular and grotesque: cable ties so tight they cut circulation, guards taking selfies with bound detainees, forced stripping, and repeated mockery.

“They walked in front of the bars… laughing and holding up their water bottles,” she said, while prisoners begged for water and medical help and were met with threats — “We’re going to gas you.”

These are not isolated outrages, she insists: “What we have been through is only a small, small part of what Palestinians have experienced.”

Human-rights organizations and UN investigators have documented similar methods for years — from prolonged shackling and sensory torture to enforced nakedness and sleep deprivation — framing such reports as evidence of institutionalized cruelty rather than random excesses.

Amnesty and the UN have repeatedly warned that administrative detention and incommunicado practices enable abuses that go unaccounted.

Visual corroboration has surfaced before: surveillance footage from the Sde Teiman detention facility showing sexual assault and severe beating provoked international outrage and investigations that stalled. Survivors’ medical records and hospital reports — broken ribs, amputations, infections — further align with witness testimony, underscoring a pattern that extends far beyond one intercepted flotilla.

Thunberg also accused Swedish consular staff of downplaying the abuse and failing to secure basic support.

That contrast — a globally known white activist treated so brutally while thousands of Palestinians remain held, many without charge — is the moral outrage she presses: “If Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a well-known, white person… this way, just imagine what they do to Palestinians behind closed doors.”

Her words demand independent investigations, urgent accountability, and an end to practices that human-rights monitors say have been normalized under the cover of security.