Flotilla, Israeli ministers Katz and Ben-Gvir under investigation in Rome: charges of torture and abduction

First National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Now Defense Minister Israel Katz. Then the admirals, the generals, the special units commanders, the prison officials. Thirteen people in all. A piece of Benjamin Netanyahu's government and of Israel's entire military chain of command is in the Rome prosecutors' investigation into the assaults on the Global Sumud Flotilla. Two humanitarian missions bound for Gaza, in October 2025 and May 2026. Two operations by the Israeli navy in international waters. And, according to the complaints gathered by the Italian magistrates, a system of violence, torture and humiliation against the detained activists. The investigation has taken a leap forward. Because deputy prosecutors Lucia Lotti and Stefano Opilio, coordinated by chief prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, did not limit themselves to reconstructing what happened on the ships and in the Israeli prisons. They traced the chain of command, identifying who, at the various levels, would have had responsibility for the operations. And they entered the political and military leadership into the register of suspects. The military leadership and the prison officials The names are those of the army chief of staff, General Eyal Zamir; Vice Admiral David Saar Salama; General Tal Politis; the commander of the Shayetet naval special forces, Eldad Borochovich; and Colonel Eitan Paz, head of the Ashdod base. For the second mission, Vice Admiral Eyal Harel also appears, appointed to lead the Navy on April 16, just two weeks before the boardings off Crete, along with Major General Guy Levy. But the investigation does not stop at the sea. Because what happened afterwards, according to the prosecution, is just as serious. And so the list also includes the head of the Israeli police, Daniel Levy; the head of the prison service, Kobi Yaakobi; the head of Ketziot prison, Menachen Bibas; the commander of the Nahshon escort unit, Assaf Zagori; and the head of the border police, Berik Yitzchak. The investigation coordinated with ten other countries It is a reconstruction of a command structure. And it comes after a meeting in The Hague, where the Rome magistrates met with representatives of ten other countries investigating the same events: Portugal, Spain, France, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, Finland and Slovakia. Eleven prosecutors' offices, then, working to reconstruct what happened. With the Rome office having developed one of the most detailed case files, with investigations carried out by Ros carabinieri, the anti-terrorism unit. The suspected offenses are extremely serious: kidnapping, torture, robbery, damage causing danger of shipwreck. And they rest on the testimony of fifty people, on the analysis of video footage, on technical findings and on medical reports. The boardings and the reported violence The story begins at sea. On May 18 and 19, in international waters off Crete, the ships are reached by Israeli military personnel. The activists report violent boardings, the destruction of live-broadcasting equipment and the seizure of electronic devices. Then the transfer to Ashdod. And from there to the detention facilities. It is in those hours that, according to the investigators' reconstruction, the violence becomes systematic: "the violation of basic rights." The witnesses describe beatings, broken bones, sexual harassment, guns pointed at their heads, threats with knives. Dogs, tasers, hands and feet bound. Rationed water and food, medical care denied even in emergency conditions. And also sleep deprivation, insults, accusations of terrorism. Up to the impossibility of contacting lawyers and diplomatic representatives. These are not just stories. Because the magistrates have obtained medical documentation which, according to the findings, corroborates the reported injuries. And they have reconstructed the various phases of the detention: from the ships to the port, from Ketziot prison to the expulsion to Turkey, where some activists were treated before returning to Italy. The video published by Minister Ben-Gvir Then there is a video. A few seconds, posted on social media by Minister Ben-Gvir himself. The activists are kneeling in the port of Ashdod, handcuffed with their hands behind their backs. Around them, officers mock them. A scene shown to the world by the Israeli government official himself. And which, for the investigators, represents evidence of the degrading treatment reported by the detainees. It is also from those images that the minister's judicial position takes shape. But there is another element. Because the violence, according to the prosecution, would not have been isolated episodes. The investigation into the second mission, that of April-May 2026, would have documented the repetition of the same conduct, in even harsher ways. Two missions, then. The same procedures, the same detention facilities, a substantially identical chain of command. It is on this continuity that the Rome investigation is now focusing.