Hundreds of Tunisians gathered in Sidi Bou Said near Tunis to welcome the Global Sumud Flotilla, Sept. 7, 2025. (credit: Brahim Guedich, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
On May 22, 2026, several Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) participants captured the attention of CNN and Reuters newsrooms with explosive allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of Israeli forces.
However, the individuals and organization driving these claims – all dedicated to the eradication of Israel – presented them entirely without evidence.
A closer look at these claims exposes a disconnect between the activists’ testimonies and the physical evidence.
CNN reported Juliet Lamont’s claim that five men beat and sexually assaulted her in a shipping container aboard the Israeli vessel, specifically telling Anadolu Agency that they smashed her face. However, video footage of her speaking to the agency showed no signs of such trauma. Similarly, Mi Hoa Lee told Reuters four men repeatedly beat her face against a wall, but video footage taken upon her return to Israel showed no physical evidence corroborating her claims.
Furthermore, the flotilla organizers’ own videos of the interceptions show IDF troops strictly adhering to protocol: announcing their approach, directing individuals to the front of the vessel with their hands raised, and boarding systematically. The footage also contradicts the activists’ accusations against the IDF’s elite naval commando unit, Shayetet 13. Despite GSF captioning these videos as “violent” interceptions, the footage itself largely shows no violence.
The broader strategy: Defamation and terror ties
These accusations fit into a larger, orchestrated media strategy. The GSF stated that Israeli authorities sexually assaulted a total of 15 participants. A GSF member organization, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, similarly claimed in January 2026 that Israeli forces sexually assaulted three individuals during the October 2025 flotilla mission.
This tactic of amplifying unverified assault claims through major media outlets forms part of a broader pattern. These latest allegations arrived just ten days after The New York Times published Nicholas Kristof’s column accusing Israel of employing “systematic” sexual violence against Palestinians.
In 2020, Israel sanctioned the founder and chairman of one of the sources Kristof used in his report, Ramy Abdu of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, under its counter-terrorism law for his role in an organization Israel designated as a Hamas affiliate. Abdu has repeatedly posed for photographs alongside Hamas officials, and in 2013, Israel placed Abdu on a list of Hamas’s “main operatives and institutions” in Europe.
Like Kristof’s source, many of the GSF steering committee members who dictate the flotilla’s narrative, hold documented links to Hamas leadership. The Amit Terrorism and Intelligence Research Institute has published evidence linking many of the flotilla’s organizers to proscribed terrorist organizations, and the U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned four separate individuals associated with the flotilla. For example, Zaher Birawi called himself a founding member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, according to a June 9, 2025, Telegraph report. Israel placed Birawi on the same terror list as Abdu in 2013, and in October 2023, Labour MP Christian Wakeford formally named Birawi as a Hamas operative in the House of Commons.
Notably, Hamas posted several times on its Telegram in support of GSF, indicating clear ideological alignment.
Screenshot of Hamas statements posted to the terrorist group’s official Telegram in support of the Global Sumud Flotilla.
These defamatory campaigns trigger real-world implications. As of May 28, the U.N. added Israeli entities to a blacklist of countries that commit sexual violence in conflict zones, a list that includes Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
Biased Reporters and Compromised Sources
Furthermore, the reporters and their sources lack credibility. CAMERA has found the work of CNN’s Abeer Salman focused on Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank riddled with flat out lies, antisemitism, and entirely misleading, one-sided narratives.
Similarly, CAMERA has documented Reuters’s Rami Ayyub, who has demonstrated a pattern of erasing whitewashing terrorism against Israelis.
CNN reporters quoted the Israeli-based non-for-profit legal center, Adalah, as a representative for the flotilla activists. Adalah has a history of engaging in Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) activities. In November 2017, Adalah Justice Project Director Nadia Ben-Youssef admitted during a talk at Cambridge University that the organization has pivoted its argument from directly supporting BDS to supporting the right to boycott Israel due to restrictions on calling for BDS in Israeli law. Ben-Youssef stressed that still, “we believe in the pillars of the BDS movement.” The BDS movement believes that the entirety of Israel occupies Arab land. It seeks to apply economic and popular pressure to end this alleged occupation.
The activists CNN and Reuters quoted —Lamont, Lee, Zack Schofield, Ilaria Mancosu, and Sam Woripa Watson — are veteran political organizers whose social media profiles reveal support for Palestinian terrorism and deep anti-Israel biases. As early as Oct. 9, 2023, just two days after Hamas’s brutal massacre, Watson posted “free Palestine,” indicating support for the Oct. 7 massacre. Many of these quoted sources have a history of sharing extreme rhetoric and promoting violence. Lamont and Lee have utilized the red inverted triangle in their posts, a symbol the Anti-Defamation League notes is used in Hamas propaganda to designate military targets. Lee has also posted videos justifying the Hamas attacks, stating “History did not begin on Oct. 7.” Lamont shared imagery calling for an “intifada,” in reference to the Palestinian intifadas in which over 1,000 Israelis were murdered in suicide bombings, shootings, and stabbings. Other activists have targeted civilians, such as Mancosu, who shared a discriminatory post warning against Israeli tourists visiting Sardinia, equating civilian tourists with military targets and war criminals.
Screenshot of Ilaria Mancosu’s Instagram story on May 28. The Italian text translated to English reads: “Four direct flights from Tel Aviv arrive tomorrow, May 28. Four flights will land at Cagliari airport this morning: at 8:45, 11:35, 12:50, and 14:30. It looks like Sardinia could become the new tourist colony for these charming young people, thanks in part to the tireless work of our incomparable president. Let’s hope they don’t overstay their welcome, as has happened in other beautiful Mediterranean destinations.” The photo below depicts soldiers with the caption “Israeli Military”.
The humanitarian illusion
Further undermining their credibility, GSF and the activists (including those CNN and Reuters quoted) engaged in a coordinated campaign of deception to disguise their political operation as a humanitarian mission.
Israeli authorities, GSF, flotilla organizers, and participants have contradicted the narrative the flotilla is a humanitarian endeavor. After Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla on May 18, 2026, Israel’s Foreign Ministry and COGAT both announced that no meaningful aid existed aboard any of the ships. Despite near-daily live streams from the vessels, organizers and participants (including those quoted in the CNN and Reuters articles) failed to produce a single photo or video of anyone packing, loading, or storing aid.
Many organizers and participants openly admit their goals are political. On May 17, 2026, the GSF organization’s Instagram explicitly stated its mission was to “break Israel’s illegal siege” and “confront the systems of control,” making no mention of delivering aid.
In a Sept. 5, 2017, interview with Hamas’s daily newspaper, Felesteen, Birawi (mentioned above) said that the flotillas aim to defame Israel and to amplify accompanying political and media campaigns.
After Israel deported the activists, flotilla participant and New York City anti-Israel activist, Rosa Martinez, echoed this political focus in a Palestinian Youth Movement NYC Instagram video. Stating the true priority was “directly confronting the Israeli occupation forces at sea,” Martinez dismissed the aid aspect as “flattening what it is that we’re doing,” and admitted that whatever aid they possessed remained insufficient.
Affiliated groups also acknowledge this reality. The European Palestinian Youth Union, which opted out of the May 2026 mission after participating in previous flotillas, noted on Instagram that the flotilla’s aid is “largely symbolic,” stating its true power lies in the media attention and political pressure it can generate.
Screenshot of a European Palestinian Youth Union statement posted to the organization’s Instagram on April 7, 2026.
Tellingly, this organization openly praises Palestinian terror and supports Palestinian terrorists.
Despite CAMERA’s outreach, CNN refused to correct its framing of the flotilla as a humanitarian mission.
CNN and Reuters’ rose-colored glasses are likely what compelled the outlets to platform the activists’ most explosive claims in the first place.
Accusations of systematic sexual assault demand serious investigation and concrete evidence. While the #MeToo movement rightly established a precedent of supporting victims, its architects designed it to protect individuals exposing abuses of power where speaking out carries immense personal and professional risk.
In contrast, flotilla activists levying accusations against Israeli forces face no such vulnerabilities. Instead, powerful organizations shield them and actively amplify their messaging.
Given these activists’ documented biases, histories of political provocation, and terror links, journalists should demand substantial evidence for their claims.
In amplifying these defamatory, terror-linked campaigns without journalistic scrutiny, the media validates operations designed not to deliver humanitarian aid, but to wage a calculated information war.