University of Melbourne student Gemma O'Toole has returned to Melbourne after being detained by Israeli forces when a Gaza-bound aid flotilla was intercepted on 19 May. 

O’Toole described in a recent Instagram post being crammed into a shipping container with other flotilla members on an Israeli warship, being sexually assaulted and strip-searched by male soldiers.

The Global Sumud Flotilla had departed southern Türkiye for the third time after two earlier attempts to reach Gaza were intercepted in international waters.

O'Toole, a disability support worker, was politically active during the UniMelb for Palestine encampment, which pressured the university to disclose its research ties with weapons manufacturers.

She had described the flotilla's mission as challenging Israel's blockade and delivering urgently needed humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Her father, Patrick Kaiser, told The West Report while she was detained that her family had not heard anything in the 64 hours after the flotilla was intercepted by the IDF. 

"We don’t know if she’s alive, we don’t know if she’s floating in the water…we don’t know what’s going on” he said.

The 11 Australians were transferred by bus to Ramon Airport in southern Israel, where Australian consular officials sought access to them before their departure by charter flight to Istanbul.

For four of the 11 Australians, this was their second interception in two weeks, while three others had previously been imprisoned by the IDF in October. 

After the flotilla was intercepted, a video circulated appearing to show Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir taunting the activists at the Ashdod detention facility where they were processed.

In the footage, dozens of activists can be seen being forced to kneel on the ground with their hands bound, as Ben-Gvir waves an Israeli flag and shouts in Hebrew, "Welcome to Israel. We are the landlords."

In a separate clip, a masked soldier forces the head of an activist to the ground after she shouts, "Free, free Palestine," Ben-Gvir responded in Hebrew, "Shut up." 

Australia, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom were among the nations that summoned Israeli ambassadors to express their indignation over the treatment of detainees. 

The reports of sexual assault on O’Toole’s flotilla follow acclaimed New York Times writer Nicholas Kristoff's recent opinion column, "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians," which alleges systematic sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees by Israeli security forces and settlers.

Image Credit: ABC News: Patrick Rocca