A Canadian activist who was taken into Israeli custody in a raid on a flotilla of ships off the Gaza coast says even though he was "brutalized" by his captors, the harshest treatment was reserved for Turkish nationals.Kevin Neish was one of three Canadians detained in Israel after a violent confrontation at sea early Monday left nine activists dead.
Neish, Farooq Burney and Rifat Audeh were on the Mavi Marmara as it ferried humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip. All three were taken into custody but have since been released and left Israel.
Neish, of Victoria, contacted friend Zoe Blunt shortly after being flown to Istanbul late Wednesday.
Blunt told The Canadian Press on Thursday that Neish said he barely escaped the raid with his life, and described to her seeing soldiers gun down civilians from helicopters as the raid began.
"He has witnessed some real horrific things...," she said. "He was stepping over dead bodies in the hallways and saw people who were shot by the Israelis."
Blunt said Neish told her he'd suffered deep bruises on his arms after being bound for up to 25 hours by plastic handcuffs and was repeatedly threatened with death by soldiers carrying assault rifles.
Still, the 53-year-old retired marine engineer conceded the treatment he received could have been worse.
"Kevin said that they were treating him maybe more gently than they were treating people of other nationalities because he was North American," Blunt said.
"The harshest treatment was being dealt out to the Turkish people on board."
Blunt said it's still not clear exactly when Neish will return to Canada. He's expressed a desire to remain in Turkey to attend the funerals of his shipmates.
Neish was scheduled to be on a different ship, the Challenger, but switched vessels when it ran into mechanical problems.
He was headed to Gaza to repair a community well but on the ship, he was to passively occupy a hallway to delay soldiers so journalists could file their stories.
Burney, director of the Qatar-based advocacy group Al Fakhoora, said he was on the convoy to deliver computers to Gaza universities.
He arrived back in Qatar, where he lives, on Thursday.
"After what I and others experienced this week, I am just grateful to be alive," he said in an email statement.
"My heart goes out to the families of those who lost their lives on board the ship while trying to provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people. We knew that it would be a difficult journey but nobody expected that we'd be confronted with lethal violence."
Video released of the incident by the Israeli government appears to show some activists moving violently towards the soldiers. Israeli officials have said the footage proves its commandos acted in self-defence and that two soldiers were shot with their own weapons after the guns were wrestled away.
Burney, 37, disputed that suggestion. He said the activists who snatched the pistols away immediately removed the cartridges and tossed them.
He also accused commandos of waiting more than an hour before treating the dozens of wounded, even watching one elderly man bleed to death after being shot.
Audeh told The Canadian Press Wednesday that the night before the violent confrontation was a tense and sleepless one because activists had heard reports Israeli forces might try and "attack" the convoy.
The 37-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., accused the soldiers of opening fire "for no reason whatsoever."
"We're a humanitarian ship, we were unarmed, we're all civilians, we had no weapons onboard," he said.
Like Neish and Burney, Audeh said he and other activists were beaten in detention.
More than 700 activists were taken into custody after the raid. Israel released the last of them by end of day Wednesday.
Thousands of mourners honoured those who were killed in the raid in Istanbul on Thursday. Eight of the dead were Turkish, and one - the youngest, 19-year-old Furkan Dogan - had dual U.S.-Turkish citizenship. The oldest was 60.
Israel has rejected calls for an international investigation into the incident. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also said the country will not lift its three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip because it could put Israeli safety at risk.
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