Spanish police used considerable force on Saturday against six Gaza aid flotilla returnees released by Israel and their supporters at the Bilbao airport.
Video footage broadcast by Spanish media showed officers repeatedly striking people who were already lying on the ground with batons, dragging them across the floor and restraining their arms behind their backs with handcuffs.
Spanish media said they were surprised by the images as there is a great deal of sympathy among the public for the flotilla and the Palestinians.
It was initially unclear what triggered the violence
The Basque police force Ertzaintza immediately announced an investigation into whether the officers’ actions complied with the applicable rules.
Two returnees and two supporters were arrested on suspicion of resisting law enforcement, it said. Three of them were released shortly afterwards, according to police.
Israel, which participants in the aid flotilla have accused of violent assaults, called for an explanation from the Spanish government over the tough police operation against the activists.
Several members of the aid flotilla, including Germans, have reported mistreatment, beatings, assaults and torture by Israeli security forces after they were detained by the Israeli army in international waters.
Germany’s Foreign Office confirmed on Friday that activists from Germany were injured. A spokesman reiterated the German government’s criticism of “humiliating treatment” of those detained in Israel. Israel rejected the allegations.
Around 430 activists with more than 50 boats wanted to break the sea blockade of the Gaza Strip to bring aid supplies to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, they said.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry spoke of a “PR stunt in the service of Hamas,” the Islamic Palestinian militia in Gaza that attacked Israel on October 7. 2023, killing 1,200 and taking some 250 hostage.
Israel then launched a hefty retaliation which the Hamas-controlled health authority has said killed more than 70,000 people in the strip.