An Italian journalist who was detained by the Israel Defense Forces following the raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla says his credit card was used to purchase items after it was confiscated by the Israeli authorities.
Manolo Luppichini was aboard the Sfintoni-8000, one of the smaller boats in the flotilla, when the naval commandos took it over. “Nobody was killed on our boat,” Luppichini said in a telephone call from Italy. “We tried a little passive resistance around the boat’s bridge. The soldiers fired paint balls and two people were hurt by stun [taser] guns.”
After the Israel Navy took over the boat, he said, the soldiers searched every passenger and confiscated everything they found. “They took two cameras, microphones, a stand and other equipment from me and my photographer. They took one of the cameras as I was taking photographs,” says Luppichini, who was working for Italy’s RAI-3 television and an Italian-Swiss television channel when he was detained.
Read the fulll story at HAARETZ.com.
