Statement: Swedish citizens subjected to abuse and torture-like treatment in Israeli prison – Sweden must act now

Statement from the Coordination of Global Movement to Gaza Sweden (Swedish delegation) and Ship to Gaza. 4 October 2025

Swedish citizens subjected to abuse and torture-like treatment in Israeli prison – Sweden must act now. 

We, the Coordination of Global Sumud Flotilla Sweden, express our deepest concern and outrage over the treatment of Swedish citizens currently detained at the Ketziot Prison in Israel. Reports from those who have managed to communicate with relatives describe conditions amounting to inhumane and degrading treatment, including physical abuse, lack of food and water, sleep deprivation, and denial of medical care.
 

The accounts we have received point to practices that clearly violate international law and may constitute breaches of the Geneva Conventions. Our participants are being held under conditions that can only be described as torture-like. Several individuals have been subjected to prolonged handcuffing, verbal abuse, humiliation, coercive acts— all while being denied access to legal representation and contact with their families.

Furthermore, reports have emerged concerning particularly severe mistreatment of participant Greta Thunberg during detention. Witnesses claim she was physically struck, forced to kiss the Israeli flag, made to walk with her hands bound behind her back, and subjected to humiliating acts in front of other detainees. These allegations point to treatment so degrading and cruel that they not only violate the norms of international human rights but may amount to torture-like conduct.

Despite these grave violations, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Government have so far failed to take any decisive action or hold Israel publicly accountable. This inaction is thoroughly unacceptable. Sweden has a legal and moral obligation to defend its citizens and to ensure they are treated in accordance with international humanitarian law and human rights conventions.

This situation is not isolated. Testimonies from our detained participants mirror the systematic mistreatment that thousands of Palestinian prisoners––including children––endure under Israeli detention. Reports from international human rights organizations have for years documented arbitrary arrests, prolonged administrative detention without trial, solitary confinement, and the use of physical and psychological coercion.

These shared patterns of abuse point to a broader system of impunity that cannot be ignored.

Sweden must not turn away. Our government has both a moral and legal obligation to ensure that all detainees, Swedish or Palestinian, are treated with dignity, in full accordance with international law.

We, together with the families of the detained, demand that:

1. The Swedish Government immediately summon the Israeli ambassador to account for these violations.

2. Sweden joins other nations in demanding the unconditional release and repatriation of its citizens.

3. All Swedish detainees are granted immediate access to medical care and prescribed medications.

4. All Swedish detainees are granted immediate and unhindered access to their legal representatives.

5. Israel allows independent observers to investigate the treatment of detainees, both international and Palestinian, under conditions consistent with the Geneva Conventions.

6. Sweden publicly recognizes these abuses as potential violations of international humanitarian law and acts accordingly at a diplomatic level.

7. The Swedish government send a diplomatic delegation immediately to negotiate the liberation of all Swedish citizens.

Silence in the face of injustice is complicity. Sweden must stand up for its citizens.

Coordination of Global Movement to Gaza Sweden
 

Contacts:
Global Movement to Gaza Sweden

Desirée, (communication.SwedenGSF@protonmail.com)

Ship to Gaza, Jeannette Escanilla, (info@shiptogaza.se)