When the Stumo brothers walked free after enduring six days in Israel’s notorious Ketziot prison, they had nothing on them but the clothes they were given in jail.
A State Department official greeted 32-year-old Adnaan and 26-year-old Tor Stumo at the Allenby Bridge border crossing in Jordan. The official told them the Jordanian government “generously” provided transport visas to facilitate their return. Despite not having any money or a phone, they would have to fly out that night. The State Department “had no interest” in speaking with Adalah, the legal aid group representing the Stumos, and other activists on the Global Sumud Flotilla, which “basically did all the work our government’s embassy should do for its own citizens,” Tor told the Prospect.
Thanks to Adalah, the Stumo brothers were taken care of. On Friday, they reunited with their mother, Nadia Milleron, at Washington Dulles International Airport.
Adnaan, the captain of the Mikeno, and Tor, a maritime engineer aboard the Huga, were among hundreds of flotilla volunteers detained by Israeli forces earlier this month. Israel, which seized 42 ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza in the span of three days, has continued to escalate its deterrence strategy against flotilla activists seeking to penetrate what is widely understood to be an illegal blockade.
“The lawlessness is just outrageous,” Milleron told the Prospect. “Israel prevented humanitarian supplies from getting to human beings, which is a war crime.”
Related: Why the Israel-Palestine Conflict Remains Unresolved
In an October 9 letter, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) requested an explanation from the State Department for its “failure to provide timely consular services to American citizens who were detained while on the Global Sumud Flotilla.” In addition to enumerating the activists’ alarming allegations of mistreatment by Israeli forces, the Democratic senators demanded answers as to why it took the State Department “longer than other governments … to visit and assess the care of American citizens.”
U.S. Embassy officials in Jerusalem coerced American citizens into forfeiting their due process rights “by making their release contingent on admitting guilt for entering Israel illegally,” the letter explains. Adnaan and Tor confirmed this. Like the other flotilla activists, the Stumo brothers were detained in international waters. They did not cave to the U.S. Embassy, which pressured them to sign the ostensibly necessary paperwork.
In defiance of maritime and international laws, Israeli forces have continued to intercept flotilla boats on the high seas, including another fleet of Gaza-bound humanitarian aid vessels organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thousand Madleens just last week. The ships had been transporting “vital aid worth over $110,000 in medicines, respiratory equipment, and nutritional supplies,” the organizations said in a statement. In July, the Israeli military halted the voyage of the Handala as it sought to deliver food, medication, baby formula and diapers to Gaza. At the time, my colleague Whitney Curry Wimbish chronicled the prolific abuse Amazon Labor Union founder Chris Smalls, the only Black member of the delegation, experienced in Israeli custody, and the untenable conditions at Givon Prison.
AT KETZIOT, AMERICAN CITIZENS and international flotilla volunteers alike have described rampant abuse, including being interrogated at random by unidentified personnel, denied access to legal representation and essential medications, and held in overcrowded cells. According to the Global Sumud Flotilla, some activists had no choice but to “sleep on the floor under harsh and unsanitary conditions,” while others bore the brunt of physical violence and psychological abuse at the hands of the authorities.
Among them was Tor Stumo.
“When I got to the port, they cuffed me, blindfolded me, shackled my ankles, [and] put me on a bus for four-and-a-half hours in that position,” he said. “They beat me on my spine on the back of my neck so I lost my vision for a second … they tightened the cuffs so much that I passed out from the lack of circulation … I have nerve damage in my left hand.”
Tor also sustained injuries to his hands after prison guards “beat the shit out of him and took his passport,” Milleron told the Prospect.
On October 4, Milleron knew her sons were in Israeli custody but had no information about their condition or whereabouts. She contacted the U.S. Embassy numerous times. In each instance, Milleron was put on hold. When she would get through to someone, Milleron told the Prospect they would say something to the effect of “we are monitoring the situation closely” before hanging up on her. She had no opportunity to respond or leave a message.
Adalah provided an update on the following day, which was when Milleron found out her sons were being held at Ketziot. She didn’t hear from the U.S. Embassy until October 6. Milleron received more information about the injuries Tor sustained to his hands and wrists on October 7, the first day of Sukkot. She questioned why Israel was able to hold Adnaan and Tor—who were not charged with a crime—for more than 72 hours. The U.S. Embassy appeared to brush off Milleron’s question, informing her staff had a half-day due to the holiday. (Israeli forces notably carried out its sophisticated operation against the Global Sumud Flotilla on Yom Kippur.)
Flotilla activists underwent training in preparation for their likely detention and subsequent imprisonment. As part of that training, volunteers were instructed to only give their passports to legal counsel upon entering Israeli custody. According to Adalah, Israeli authorities imposed severe restrictions on access to legal services and barred volunteers from placing calls to family members.
“I visited Ketziot prison, and I took pride in the fact that we treat the ‘flotilla activists’ as supporters of terrorism,” said Israel National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, effectively acknowledging the harsh treatment. “They should properly feel the conditions in Ketziot prison and think twice before approaching Israel again.”
Ben-Gvir, who oversees the Israel Prison Service (IPS), has also repeated baseless claims that the flotilla activists were trafficking weapons for Hamas.
“These statements represent a blatant endorsement of inhumane treatment, abuse, and intimidation of the flotilla participants as state policy,” said Adalah, the legal aid group representing the volunteers. “Israel is applying tactics normally reserved for Palestinians in its custody, who are routinely subjected to systemic torture and horrific abuse.”
THE STUMO BROTHERS were on hunger strike for the duration of their six-day imprisonment at Ketziot. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; Milleron herself participated in a hunger strike while attending Smith College in 1986 to protest the apartheid in South Africa.
When her sons informed her they were selected to volunteer with the Global Sumud Flotilla, she was opposed to the idea. Milleron later found herself at a port in Barcelona, Spain, helping them do inventory and loading aid onto the flotilla ships. It was an arduous task, but the journey across the Mediterranean Sea proved more challenging.
“One night after another, the boats were firebombed,” Milleron told the Prospect.
The incursions began off the coast of Tunisia when the vessels were anchored, escalating as the flotilla sailed north of Crete. Under the cover of darkness, drones and unidentified aircraft dropped nearly a dozen munitions along the flotilla route. The barrage caused two boats to catch fire. In a statement, the Global Sumud Flotilla said “they were assaulted with water cannons, doused with skunk water, and had their communications systematically jammed in yet more acts of aggression against unarmed civilians.”
In the moments leading up to the interception of the Mikeno, the Israeli military blasted Adnaan and his fellow crew members with a water cannon. “When that thing hit me in the back of the head, I saw stars,” he told the Prospect. Contrary to the breadth of misinformation about the Mikeno, Israeli forces commandeered Adnaan’s sailboat some 55 nautical miles offshore; the crew was imprisoned on their own boat and brought to port.
“They were terrible sailors,” Adnaan said. “They didn’t know how to control the boat.”
Israel has long deployed coercive instruments and tactics against civilians, namely on Palestinians living in the West Bank. Bob Suberi, a U.S.-Israeli peace activist, has witnessed “the sadistic way that Israel treats people who call them out on their bullshit” firsthand. Suberi was also among the 21-person delegation of international volunteers aboard the Handala, which prior to their departure, found a rope tied around the ship’s rudder and managed to stop a mysterious individual from contaminating their water supply with sulfuric acid, which as Suberi recalled, was “bubbling when it hit the pavement.”
But these repressive methods are mere distractions from the genocide in Gaza. For its part, the Global Sumud Flotilla “was a whole new ball of wax,” Suberi told the Prospect, citing the sheer complexity involved in organizing a humanitarian aid mission with more than 40 ships. “Israel doesn’t know how to deal with this… they’re kind of winging it.”
Flotilla activists have made it their mission to mount pressure on the global community to not only condemn Israel for committing countless crimes against humanity in Gaza, but seal the valve of taxpayer dollars that have flowed into the Israeli war chest.
“The flotilla is effective,” Suberi told the Prospect. “It’s shaking them up. It’s working. We can’t stop now.”
Despite the abuse they faced, Adnaan and Tor said it’s a small price to pay.
“We were able to act as a focal point for a massive movement,” Adnaan told the Prospect. “A couple of weeks before interception, [we received] personal videos from people in Gaza filming themselves on the beach saying… ‘we’re waiting to see sails on the horizon.’”
Tor observed how “during our interception, the Palestinians in Gaza were able to take in huge amounts of fish to feed themselves—these are their fish [caught] with their own nets and their own hands—and this is because the Israelis were distracted.”
With the new ceasefire in effect, tens of thousands of Palestinians have started to make their way home. Israel’s blockade remains intact, and it seems the flotillas will continue to float on for as long as it takes to establish a humanitarian corridor to Gaza on the high seas.
Correction, November 3, 2025 11:35 am: This article has been updated to correct the surname of Adnaan and Tor Stumo.
