A BRITISH yacht skipper who was detained by Israeli forces when his Gaza aid flotilla was intercepted has told his father he was punched and kicked by his captors.

He also claimed a female detainee had been subjected to an attack during their detention.

A rights group representing the detainees said they had been physically abused and at least three people had been taken to hospital.

There were reports of Tasers and rubber bullets being used, and activists being ‘subjected to severe degradation and sexual harassment and humiliation’.

Elliott Roberts was able to make a two-minute video call from a medical centre in Istanbul to his Torquay-based father Allen late on Thursday night. He had been flown to Turkey with hundreds of other detainees courtesy of the Turkish government, which also paid for hotel rooms and medical checks.

Elliott, a 32-year-old professional yacht skipper, was at the helm of a 52-foot yacht as part of the flotilla taking food and medical supplies to Gaza when it was intercepted in international waters off Cyprus.

More than 400 people were detained and taken ashore to be detained by the Israelis, who say the flotilla was intended to serve the terrorist organisation Hamas, whose attack on Israel in October 2023 sparked the recent conflict. Around 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, were killed in the attack.

Organisers of the Global Sumud Flotilla say their mission is to deliver badly-needed food, medicine and infant formula.

Mr Roberts, who is a former Royal Navy officer, said his son was ‘just a good kid’ who was ‘standing up to show what’s right’.

He said after speaking to Elliott: “My son reported totally unnecessary and extreme violence against the handcuffed detainees, including himself being punched and kicked.”

His father said he had also been able to hear a female detainee being attacked close by him, but as everyone was forced to lie face-down, he didn’t see it.

Mr Roberts was also critical of the way the UK government had handled the incident.

His local MP, Torbay Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling, wrote to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper calling for support for Elliott and other British nationals detained during the incident.

Mr Darling said: “The flotilla is a peaceful international maritime mission involving doctors, journalists and human rights defenders from over 50 countries. The blockade under which it was intercepted has been described as a violation of international law.”

Mr Roberts said the Foreign Office had been ‘awful’. He added: “They provided absolutely nothing in the way of information to me throughout the whole ordeal and I wasn’t sure that Elliott had been released until I actually saw him. It was an extremely stressful time.

“It’s doubly disappointing as when the cruise ship with the Hansa virus docked in Tenerife, the government deployed a rapid action team to assist UK citizens and provided a specially chartered flight home for them.”

In a statement released on social media, the Israeli Foreign Office said: “This flotilla, organised by Hamas, is intended to serve Hamas. Israel will not allow vessels to enter an active combat zone and will not allow the breach of a lawful naval blockade.”

It said that if the flotilla participants genuinely wanted to deliver humanitarian aid they could dock at Ashkelon and unload the aid there, from where it would be transferred promptly to the Gaza Strip.

The statement went on: “Israel urges the participants not to break the law and to accept Israel’s proposal for a peaceful transfer of any aid they might have.”

The UK has summoned Israel’s top diplomat in Britain to explain the incident, and the Foreign Office has said it is ‘deeply concerned’ by the detention conditions depicted in videos released.