Austin Activist Greg Stoker Released from Israeli Prison After Gaza Flotilla Arrest

One of the more than 40 boats being used by the Global Sumud Flotilla before the mission's launch. The flotilla is attempting to block the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip in order to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

Courtesy of the Global Sumud Flotilla

Greg Stoker, the Austin activist and army veteran who was detained by Israeli forces while attempting to sail to Gaza on a humanitarian aid mission, has been released from an Israeli prison and is on his way back home.

Stoker announced his release in a Monday Instagram post. Israeli forces arrested Stoker last week in international waters, along with over 450 other activists. All were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla mission that set out to break Israel's sea blockade on the Gaza strip in order to deliver aid supplies to Palestinians.

Stoker was one of 171 prisoners deported from Israel, according to the country's Foreign Ministry. Some detainees, like Stoker, were routed through Slovakia, while others were taken to Greece.

In the post where he announced he'd been freed, Stoker credited pressure from local Austin representatives for his release, and he encouraged people to continue "pushing and fighting" to get the other activists out of detention.

Last month, Austin Congressman Lloyd Doggett said on social media that he worked with American and Israeli officials to help secure the release of Stoker, and that Stoker has since been safely flown out of Israel and is expected back in Austin on Tuesday. Last month, Doggett signed a letter backing the flotilla, calling on the U.S. to press Israel to ensure the demonstrators’ safe passage to Gaza.

Stoker and others, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, claimed that detainees suffered mistreatment in Israeli prisons.

"Conditions in the prison are kind of what you'd expect from a terror gulag," Stoker said in the social media video. "Basically no showers, food scarcity. A lot of people are on hunger strike in protest to them withholding insulin from some of our detainees. And we were told, 'there are no doctors for animals.'"

Stoker also said he didn't have access to a lawyer. The Israeli Foreign Ministry called the flotilla a "PR stunt" in a post on X, formerly Twitter, claiming that all the detainees' rights were upheld and that the allegations being made are "lies they are spreading are part of their pre-planned fake news campaign."

The Israeli government has claimed the Global Sumud Flotilla has ties to Hamas, but the flotilla’s organizers have rejected those allegations. The organizers have now organized three separate flotillas to bring aid to Gaza, none of which have successfully broken the blockade.