{"id":483175,"date":"2025-10-08T14:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T14:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/483175\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T14:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T14:37:10","slug":"scottish-activists-on-gaza-fleet-to-land-in-scotland-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/483175\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish activists on Gaza fleet to land in Scotland tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Along with two other Scots; Margaret Pacetta and journalist Yvonne Ridley, Khan and Hickey had spent five weeks at sea in an attempt to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza<\/a> as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n 42 ships had set sail for Gaza as part of the global flotilla (AP)(Image: )\n<\/p>\n

\n However, last Wednesday, the flotilla, which consisted of 42 boats and more than 500 sailors, was intercepted<\/a> by Israeli forces in international waters.\n<\/p>\n

\n Activists were detained in Israel<\/a> before being deported back to their countries of origin.\n<\/p>\n

\n Now, supporters of Khan and Hickey have been invited to welcome them back to Scotland.\n<\/p>\n

\n “You are welcome to join both families greet their loved ones, who have been at sea for over 5 weeks,” a poster read.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Unsuccessful in opening the humanitarian corridor however determined more than ever to stand for justice. We must take our governments to account and Free Palestine<\/a>.”\n<\/p>\n

\n In a social media update on Tuesday, Khan’s wife Isma Tahir said her husband was ‘safe’ and on his way home.\n<\/p>\n

\n She said: “I just wanted to personally thank each and every one of you for your incredible support, your letters, campaigning, messages, love, care, and duas.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI can\u2019t express how much your strength and solidarity have meant to me through these past days.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs you can imagine, it\u2019s been a rollercoaster of emotions we were told otherwise last night, hence the urgent release poster that went out early this morning. But the main thing is: he is safe, and he is coming home inshallah.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Speaking on Monday afternoon, Pacetta, who was the first Scot to return home, said that she had been held in ‘vile’ conditions.\n<\/p>\n

\n The 71-year-old grandmother, who was later taken to hospital, arrived at Glasgow Central<\/a> Station where she spoke to supporters.\n<\/p>\n

\n She said: \u201cThat was absolute hell. I\u2019ve never experienced anything like that.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey took all my meds, they took everything off me. They took my inhalers and my nebuliser, they eventually gave the nebuliser back but threw the medicine for it away.\n<\/p>\n

\n Read more:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey took my glasses off me and my hearing aids. They ripped my necklace off my neck and my watch.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Pacetta added: “They gave us 10 slices of cucumber for 18 people, they gave us four slices of bread that was very stale. You\u2019d break your teeth on it actually.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe cucumber was covered in ants. There should be six people in the cell and we had 18 of us. We had no mattresses; we were sleeping on the floor and there was ants all over it. It was horrible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Along with two other Scots; Margaret Pacetta and journalist Yvonne Ridley, Khan and Hickey had spent five weeks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-483175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115339057102436132","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}