French anti-terrorism prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into suspected torture and war crimes over Israel's alleged mistreatment of French nationals who took part in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last month. The probe, announced on Friday by France's national counterterrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT), follows a referral from the French foreign ministry and could open a route for formal criminal proceedings against Israeli authorities.
The investigation centres on the Global Sumud Flotilla, an international convoy of around 430 activists from approximately 40 countries that was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters on 18 May as it attempted to reach Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid. Israel, which maintains a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip — described by the United Nations and human rights organisations as an illegal form of collective punishment — detained the activists before expelling them to Türkiye. More than 30 French nationals were among those on board.
Several French activists described what they called a violent and humiliating ordeal upon returning to France on 22 May. One woman recounted being groped and slapped by a soldier inside a darkened container and said she feared she would be raped. Another described detainees being forced into prolonged stress positions — on their knees with their foreheads pressed to the ground — while the Israeli national anthem played on repeat. The Global Sumud Flotilla says it has documented at least 15 cases of sexual abuse, and lawyers for French participants plan to file a separate complaint covering allegations of rape, torture, and humiliation. Two French nationals remained hospitalised in Türkiye following the incident. The Israeli prison service dismissed all accusations as "entirely without factual basis."
The interception drew swift international condemnation, fuelled in part by a video posted by Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir appearing to mock the detained activists. France responded by banning Ben-Gvir from entering the country and summoning the Israeli ambassador, moves echoed by several other governments. Suhad Bishara, legal director at Adalah — an Israeli legal centre for Palestinian rights — described the accounts as "the most severe case of ill-treatment documented in the past 10 years, potentially amounting to torture."
The French investigation marks one of the most significant legal steps taken by a Western government in response to the flotilla incident. Activists have so far declined to meet with French government officials, accusing Paris of complicity in what they describe as Israel's war on Gaza. UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese noted that, grave as the activists' accounts are, the treatment they endured is "a luxury compared to what is inflicted on Palestinians in Israeli prisons" — a reminder of the wider context in which this investigation has been opened.