Did Israeli authorities mistreat Greta Thunberg after flotilla arrest? Here's what we know

In early October 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that Israeli authorities mistreated climate activist Greta Thunberg following her arrest aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla bound for Gaza. Thunberg was among 462 activists from 45 countries sailing as part of a flotilla that aimed to create a humanitarian corridor to Gaza. 

Since at least 2007, Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza that has prevented the movement of goods and aid to the Palestinian people. On Aug. 22, 2025, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the foremost authority on global food security, confirmed a famine was ongoing in Gaza.

Social media users shared posts about Thunberg's reported mistreatment in Israeli custody after Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said (archived) on Oct. 2, 2025, it had intercepted the flotilla and would take activists on board to Israel before deporting them to Europe.

One Reddit post (archived) claimed "Israeli authorities have beaten Greta Thunberg, made her kiss Zionist flag."

Israeli authorities have beaten Greta Thunberg, made her kiss Zionist flag
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Claims about Thunberg's alleged mistreatment also circulated on X (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived). Snopes readers wrote in asking whether the claims were true.

At the time of this writing, Thunberg and other activists had spoken publicly about the alleged abuse and mistreatment they said they suffered at the hands of Israeli authorities while awaiting deportation. 

On Oct. 4, 2025, the U.K. newspaper The Guardian reported an alleged correspondence between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden and "people close to Thunberg." According to this alleged correspondence, Thunberg had suffered dehydration and "received insufficient amounts of both water and food." Additionally, members of Israeli foces reportedly forced Thunberg to "hold flags while pictures were taken." In an Oct. 5, 2025, statement (archived) the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel called the accounts "brazen lies" and claimed the "ludicrous and baseless allegations" never occurred.

Snopes could not independently confirm or debunk accounts of mistreatment by the Israeli authorities who held the arrested flotilla activists. When asked whether it could confirm the authenticity of the correspondence reported in The Guardian article, the Press Office of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs said in an emailed statement: "We have received reports of abusive treatment, which Israel strenuously denies. If those reports are accurate it is a serious matter." Given the above, we leave this claim unrated.

Adalah, a nongovernmental organization whose legal counsel visited several activists in detention, said in a news release on Oct. 5 that it had gathered testimony from 80 detained activists who said Israeli authorities denied them "essential medical treatment and medications," provided "grossly inadequate" food and detained them in overcrowded cells under "harsh and unsanitary" conditions. 

We reached out to Thunberg to establish the authenticity of The Guardian's reported correspondence and allegations. We also reached out to Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the country's prison service to ask it for any further comment on the allegations of mistreatment, specifically those from the Guardian article. We reached out to the Global Sumud Flotilla to ask what they knew about the alleged mistreatment of detained activists. We await replies to our queries.

Activists corroborated Thunberg's allegation

After being deported to Greece on Oct. 6, 2025, Thunberg told the media, "I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment, trust me, but that is not the story." Days later, in a video uploaded to her Instagram account, Thunberg repeated (archived) the allegation, saying (at 1:25), "What Israel did was mainly not to illegally abduct us in international waters and abuse us in prison, but it was that it stopped a humanitarian mission and violated international law."

Accounts from several other activists who said they were detained with Thunberg corroborated details from The Guardian's report. 

On Oct. 4, Israel said (archived) it deported 137 of the flotilla activists to Turkey. Also on that date, Ersin Çelik, a Turkish journalist who filed reports from aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, told CNN Türk that Israeli authorities "mistreated Greta. She's just a little girl, Greta. They made her crawl. They made her kiss the Israeli flag."

Lorenzo D'Agostino, an Italian journalist and activist whom Anadolu Agency interviewed in Istanbul Airport, said, "Greta Thunberg, a brave woman was only 22 years old, she was humiliated and wrapped in an Israeli flag and exhibited like a trophy."

Semanur Sönmez, a Turkish activist, corroborated Çelik's account that Israeli forces had made Thunberg kiss an Israeli flag during a CNN Türk broadcast published on Oct. 6. Evie Snedker, a British activist, told Anadolu Agency in London on Oct. 7 that Thunberg "was made to sit on her own in the back corner and they surrounded her with Israeli flags and laughing and jeering and just terrible behavior."

Çelik, D'Agostino, Sönmez and Snedker all said Israeli authorities had withheld food and water during their detentions. Further activists from Spain, Switzerland and Malaysia also complained of poor treatment in Israeli detention, according to news reports.

Adalah corroborated (archived) these accounts. In a video published on the group's Telegram channel on Oct. 6, legal counsel Lubna Tuma said she had visited flotilla activists in Israeli detention. According to Tuma, those activists also said they had been denied medical care and were made to sit in painful positions for long stretches of time.

On Oct. 15, the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet published an interview with Thunberg, during which she repeated allegations made by activists about their treatment. Thunberg said Israeli authorities harassed and physically abused the imprisoned activists. She also recounted being placed apart from the other activists near an Israeli flag. 

"The flag was placed so that it would touch me. When it fluttered and touched me, they shouted 'Don't touch the flag' and kicked me in the side," Thunberg said.

Aftonbladet also reported on the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs' correspondence about Thunberg. According to Thunberg and other sources Aftonbladet spoke to, the local diplomatic staff reportedly did little to help the imprisoned Swedes.

Ben-Gvir had dubbed activists 'terrorists'

Though the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel repeatedly said in X posts that the detained activists were "safe" and in good health, it was unclear whether Israel's policy on how it treated flotilla activists had recently changed (archived, archived, archived).

In June 2025, Thunberg sailed on the Madleen, another activist boat that aimed to deliver aid to Gaza. Israeli authorities boarded the Madleen on June 9 and deported (archived) Thunberg on June 10. Though Israeli authorities held some activists longer than Thunberg, it did not appear Thunberg or others had publicly complained about mistreatment while detained.

Following the Global Sumud Flotilla arrests in early October, a video (archived) circulated in Israeli media of Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir surveying the detained activists and calling them "terrorists." Ben-Gvir, whose ministry oversees prisons in Israel, also said (archived) in an Oct. 3 statement that the activists "should be kept here in Israeli prison for a few months so they can get a taste of what it's like in the terrorist wing." 

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Oct. 5 that some activists remained in the country because they themselves "refused to expedite their deportation." According to Israeli media, Thunberg was among activists who refused to sign a document that would allow her to bypass Israel's mandatory 72-hour hold time before deportation.

Ben-Gvir wrote (archived) on Facebook on Oct. 5: "I visited Ktziot Prison and was proud that we treat the 'flotilla activists' as supporters of terrorism. Anyone who supports terrorism is a terrorist and deserves to be treated as such." He added, "They should get a good feel for the conditions at Ktziot Prison and think twice before coming near Israel again. That's how it works."

In sum …

At the time of this writing, Israeli authorities roundly dismissed the accounts of several activists, including Thunberg herself, that they were mistreated and abused in Israeli custody. The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs had not confirmed alleged official correspondence that claimed Thunberg had suffered from dehydration and hunger and had been "forced to hold flags while pictures were taken." Several activists corroborated claims of abuse and mistreatment and said Israeli authorities taunted Thunberg with Israeli flags, an account Thunberg also gave to Swedish media herself.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not directly address any single accusation but dismissed "claims regarding the mistreatment of Greta Thunberg" as "brazen lies."

DeepL.com provided translations from Hebrew and Turkish into English.