Extract from ABC News
Gemma O'Toole was detained by Israeli forces when they intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla off the coast of Cyprus. (ABC News: Patrick Rocca)
In short:
Gemma O'Toole is the first of 11 Australian activists on the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla to return home after being detained by Israel.
Israel deported more than 400 flotilla detainees to Türkiye following a global outcry over their treatment in custody.
What's next?
More activists are due to arrive back in Australia on Monday morning.
Gemma O'Toole, one of 11 Australian activists detained by Israel while participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla, has arrived back in Australia.
The 23-year-old student landed at Melbourne airport on Sunday evening and was met by applause from a crowd of friends and family.
"I am relieved to be home but I am deeply sad and traumatised," she told the ABC.
"It is going to take me a while to come to terms with what's happened and everything I have seen."
Ms O'Toole was among hundreds of international activists aboard the flotilla, which aimed to break Israel's naval blockade on Gaza to deliver aid, before being intercepted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) off the coast of Cyprus on Monday, May 18.
Israel deported all the foreign activists to Türkiye on Thursday following a global outcry over their treatment in custody, with Turkish authorities confirming 422 activists were flown from southern Israel on three planes chartered by Ankara.
Ms O'Toole alleged Israeli forces subjected the activists to physical abuse and sexual violence during their detention.
The organisers of the flotilla have also alleged that some activists were subjected to abuse, including sexual abuse — an allegation that Israel's prison service has denied.
The IDF rejected all abuse allegations in a statement to the ABC.
"IDF orders require respectful and appropriate treatment of flotilla participants on the intercepted vessels, and there are clear and established procedures in this regard," the statement said.
"No specific incidents of deviation from these binding procedures are known within the IDF. Any concrete complaints submitted to the IDF on the matter will be examined thoroughly."
A military official said the activists underwent "security screening procedures", initially by the IDF and then by Israeli Prison Service personnel on a landing craft, before they were transferred to Israel Police and other Israeli law enforcement authorities upon their arrival at an Israeli port.
Ms O'Toole said the focus on the treatment of the activists should not distract from the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
"I gather there's a lot of attention being paid to the Ben-Gvir video, which is just so insane to me," she said, referring to a video posted by Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, showing the detained activists with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground.
The video sparked widespread condemnation and a diplomatic backlash.
"What you saw in that video is this [infinitesimal] amount of what we actually went through. And then to think that's what they do to predominantly white people when they're being held relatively to account, there's so much attention being paid to that," Ms O'Toole said.
"My heart is just broken for the Palestinian people."
Ms O'Toole's mother, Suzie O'Toole, said she was "enraged" by how her daughter and others had been treated.
"[I'm] exhausted but absolutely furious that my daughter and all of the other brave activists were kidnapped by Israel, held hostage … sleep-deprived, all because they got on boats to take aid to starving people," she said.
Dr O'Toole said the situation should be a wake-up call for Australia.
"It has to be a line in the sand. We just can't be OK with this."
Gemma O'Toole was met at the airport by her parents. (ABC News: Patrick Rocca)
Another participant in the flotilla, environmental activist Violet Coco, arrived at Melbourne Airport early on Monday morning to be was greeted by family members and supporters.
She says she was assaulted and abused while in Israeli custody.
"After being kidnapped from international waters, every participant on our boat was stripped of our layers, pushed to a dark torture chamber where five Israeli soldiers waited to beat and abuse us," she said.
"We were then subjected to days of starvation, dehydration, extreme cold, stress positions at gunpoint in the blistering sun for hours, sleep deprivation and more."
Activist Violet Coco is greeted by family and supporters on arrival in Melbourne. (ABC News: Stephanie Ferrier)
Ms Coco accused the Australian government of not doing enough to condemn Israel's treatment of flotilla detainees.
"What got me through is thinking about coming home, and now I'm home I can't stop thinking about my brothers and sisters that we left behind, still in the clutches of the Israeli military, police and prison guards, who take so much pleasure in inflicting pain and suffering," she said.
"There are still almost 10,000 Palestinian prisoners held hostage in Israel's prison system, hundreds of whom are children, some as young as two.
"Israel wants to shame us but we are not ashamed, the shame is Israel's, that they would tarnish their souls with such calculated cruelty."
The other Australian detainees are Neve O'Connor, Sam Woripa Watson, Anny Mokotow, Isla Lamont, Juliet Lamont, Surya McEwen, Zack Schofield and Bianca Webb-Pullman.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said Australia condemned "the degrading treatment of flotilla participants by Israeli authorities shown in publicly available footage".
"We are also deeply alarmed by individual allegations of mistreatment of Australians while in detention," a DFAT spokesperson said.
"Australia has made representations to Israel about these allegations and conveyed our expectation that they be urgently investigated."
Israel's ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, told ABC 7.30 on Thursday that the flotilla crew had not been harmed.
"There are many accusations that are thrown out there, which are untrue," he said.
"No-one was hurt. The interception was done very smoothly."
Ms O'Toole's father, Patrick Keyzer, said the ambassador's comments were "absolute rubbish".
"A lot of people have a lot of opinions about what the activists were doing, but Australians should not be treated that way anywhere in the world, especially by a country that says that they're our ally," Mr Keyzer said.
Australian consular assistance to the detainees was "ineffective" until they were in Türkiye, he said.
"It is clear that our consular officials weren't being given access to Australians when they were in Israel being maltreated," he said.
"The impression we got is that Australian consular officials in Israel were in a wild goose chase, chasing everybody around so that they could access the Australians."
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