Prosecutors in Rome have placed Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz and 12 senior officials from the military, police and prison service under investigation over the treatment of activists detained aboard Gaza-bound aid flotillas. The move widens a previous probe that had focused only on far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
In a statement issued on Friday, the Rome prosecutor's office said the case concerns allegations of torture, kidnapping, infliction of personal injury, robbery and destruction during Israeli interceptions of small activist flotillas bound for Gaza in 2025 and 2026.
The investigation follows a complaint filed by 50 Italian citizens who were detained during the two Global Sumud Flotilla missions last year and this year. Among those named is Israeli military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir.
Prosecutors said activists detained after the first mission in 2025 reported beatings, injuries, death threats, insults and being branded terrorists. Participants in the second mission in 2026 described harsher treatment, including beatings in the dark and the use of electric shock devices and rubber bullets.
Activists reported at least 15 cases of sexual abuse, including rape.
Luca Poggi, an Italian economist who was detained, told Reuters in May: "We were stripped naked, thrown to the ground, kicked."
In June, Ben-Gvir dismissed reports of the investigation, saying he would "proudly continue to stand alongside" Israeli soldiers.
Flotilla organisers say they aimed to break Israel's blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian aid.
Background to the case
The first Global Sumud Flotilla set sail from Barcelona in September 2025 with 42 vessels and 462 activists. Israeli forces intercepted the convoy in international waters in early October that year, detaining hundreds of people who were later deported.
The second mission left Barcelona in April 2026. Israeli forces began intercepting vessels near the Greek island of Crete from 30 April, and by 19 May had detained about 430 people on roughly 50 boats in international waters, with the final interceptions taking place off Cyprus.
Ben-Gvir later posted a video showing him mocking handcuffed, kneeling activists at a temporary prison in Ashdod port while Israel's national anthem played.
Prosecutors said they sent Israel a request for judicial assistance in June, seeking information to reconstruct events and establish individual responsibility, but did not say whether Israel had responded.
They have also held discussions at Eurojust, the EU's judicial cooperation agency, amid similar investigations under way in other European countries.
Under Italian law, crimes committed abroad against Italian citizens can be prosecuted in Rome. If the investigation finds the allegations substantiated, prosecutors can formally request that a trial be opened.
