IT has been less than 24 hours since Hughie Stirling arrived home at Inverness Airport, carrying nothing but his prison uniform in a duty-free bag, and he has now spoken about his treatment at the hands of the Israeli authorities who he said were "glorifying in their ability to hurt us and torture us".
The 68-year-old from Ullapool was one of two Scots taking part in the Global Sumud Flotilla, a major humanitarian mission aiming to deliver much-needed aid to Gaza, when Israeli forces intercepted the activists on Monday.
More than 400 people were kidnapped by Israel in international waters – where Israel has no jurisdiction – before being taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod on a large makeshift prison boat.
They then spent the night in the notorious Ketziot prison, where human rights abuses against Palestinians are well documented, before eventually being deported to Turkey, with a number of activists giving accounts of alleged abuse, assault, and torture while being held by Israel.
Stirling landed at Inverness Airport on Saturday night, after spending more than a day left in limbo in Istanbul without his glasses and missing a hearing aid, allegedly receiving no practical support from Foreign Office officials on the ground.
The second Scot taking part in the flotilla, St Andrews University staff member Dr Antonis Vradis, was sailing as part of the Greek delegation and landed in Athens on Friday evening, where he has since made contact with his family.
While relieved to get home, Stirling told The National he felt emotional and "completely overwhelmed".
"I think it's all to do with me suddenly having to process what's happened," he said. "I'm so grateful that I'm alive, and to have some kind of understanding about what Palestinians are going through every day, year on year out."
He added: "I can't help but think how evil they [Israeli officers] were, almost glorifying in their ability to hurt us and torture us and completely take away all our humanity, and then laugh about it."
While Stirling was held in detention, he said he was subject to horrific violence from the Israeli police force, led by far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – who earlier this week sparked international fury after sharing footage of the flotilla activists being brutally assaulted and taunted.
Stirling recalled being thrown to the ground, forced to strip repeatedly, and being forced to kneel on the ground in the blazing heat.
He said: "I was beaten quite badly when we first got put on the prison ship. They ripped my jacket off, they punched me and kicked me, yelling at us 'Get your head down!'.
"I was trying to take my jacket off and I must have raised my head up by about four inches, and a guy just laid into me with his boot on my lower back area.
"I could hardly breathe, the pain was excruciating."
While on the prison ship, the activists were stuffed into shipping containers to the point there was no room to lie down and sleep at night, Stirling said. During the day, he said they would be taken outside to a small yard on the deck, where Israeli officers threw flash bombs at them.
"They'd march in pointing their guns, shouting and yelling, 'Get back or I'll fucking shoot you!'," Stirling added.
The activists were then taken on to Ashdod port, where they were visited by Ben-Gvir, who has already been sanctioned by the UK Government, accused of inciting “extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights".
Stirling said he was forced to kneel "in an incredibly uncomfortable position for over an hour in the bright sunshine" while listening to the Israeli national anthem blasted on repeat.
He added officers repeatedly ordered the activists to "take our clothes off" before "belittling us", adding: "That ended in us being shackled by our legs and arms, and finally put in a prison bus.
"They left us there for hours, they wouldn't let us go to the toilet. We had to just do the toilet in the bus."
Stirling recalled how he was subject to violence during the transfer to Ketziot prison. The shoes he was wearing had broken, and the sole had separated from the rest of the shoe, causing him to trip – at which point he was assaulted yet again by officers.
"They just threw me into this metal fence because they were so cross that I wasn't walking the way they wanted me to," Stirling said.
"I'd managed to hang on to my hearing aids until then, but that's when I must have lost one."
When in prison, the activists were "frog-marched" from one cell to another by soldiers and forced to run around, he said. While the cells contained a toilet, they did not have toilet paper – with Stirling saying this was a "humiliation" tactic as many of the flotilla activists were left with diarrhoea.
Eventually, they were released, with the activists "marched" through the airport and put on planes to Turkey.
But the ordeal did not stop here – with Stirling hitting out at the Foreign Office for the lack of support it gave to the UK activists who had been kidnapped once they had been deported.
The Foreign Office previously insisted that UK officials were deployed in Turkey to assist the activists, but organisers hit back – telling The National that "no practical or useful support was provided by the UK Government to the participants to contact their families or to get home from Turkey".
"I asked how I was going to get home from here, and they [officials] said 'Turkish Airlines are taking care of it'," Stirling said. "Well, that was a load of rubbish."
"They said 'we'll get you glasses', and they never did. They said 'we'll sort out a hearing aid for you', and they never did."
At one point, Stirling said a consular official offered to get him a coffee, but came back 15 minutes later empty-handed because "the coffee machine's empty".
"This was the level of expertise of these British consulates that were supposed to be taking care of us," Stirling said.
"It was laughable in lots of ways."
He added: "A lot of people had held up until that moment, and when they suddenly realised the support wasn't there for them, they just couldn't take it anymore and they basically collapsed – they got to the end of their tether," Stirling said.
He added: "I don't want to start a blame game, but I think the consulate saying they're sorting everything out – that's rubbish, they didn't.
"Where were they when we needed them? That is just another opportunity for them to pretend that they're taking care of us when they're not."
Stirling was keen to highlight the purpose of the Global Sumud Flotilla – to deliver humanitarian aid, break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, and show solidarity with the Palestinian people.
He said: "It hasn't been easy, it's been traumatic. But it isn't about me, that's one message I want to put out.
"It's about what's happening to people who have no voice."
The Israeli embassy has been approached for comment.
