Kieran Andrieu

Kieran Andrieu   ( journalist,  activist)
Victim of	kidnapping
Alma mater	Birkbeck University of London
One of the Aid Flotilla participants kidnapped by Israel and taken to Ketziot Prison

Dr Kieran Andrieu is a British/Palestinian journalist who writes for Novara Media.

Background

Andrieu has a BA in International Relations, a post-graduate degree in Global Politics and a PhD in Political Economy from Birkbeck University of London.

Activism

Kieran Andrieu participated in the 2025 Global Sumud Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, which Israel is blockading and starving of food supplies.

Kidnapped by Israel

On 1 October 2025, Kieran Andrieu wrote:

GSF: 497 participants from 46 countries

I am writing from a Spanish-flagged sailing boat called Adara. On board are elected politicians from Spain, Portugal and Argentina, as well as a doctor and two journalists. We are carrying baby formula, food and medicine for the starving Palestinian people in Gaza. Our mission is entirely peaceful and entirely legal.

It is Wednesday afternoon, and the sea is calm. But things on board are frenetic because we are now well into the area in which Israel has previously intercepted boats in international waters, in direct violation of international law. If you are reading this, it means the same thing has now happened to us. My editor has published this piece because I have been illegally captured and taken into Israeli detention.

I spent a month at sea on board the Global Sumud Flotilla, reporting on an unprecedented attempt by hundreds of activists from 44 countries to break Israel’s illegal blockade and establish a humanitarian aid corridor. I wanted the world to know that it was happening, and I knew we couldn’t rely on reporting by mainstream media journalists, who started off uninterested, and later published dangerous inaccuracies, such as claiming a drone strike was a misfired flare or a fire caused by a cigarette butt.

I’m so glad I did, because things have happened in the past four weeks that are truly unprecedented. Three NATO countries, for instance, offered naval support to an activist initiative led by Greta Thunberg, fundamentally challenging the almost unwavering complicity of world leaders in genocide.

But aside from joining as a journalist, I also took part because I have six siblings living in Palestine under Zionist occupation. Growing up in the UK, I watched from afar as they were shot, imprisoned and terrorised, simply for wanting to live on land that has belonged to our family for generations. I am scared and heartbroken for them every single day, and yet their suffering is still nothing compared to the suffering of people in Gaza.

Sailing on this mission means I almost certainly won’t be able to visit my family again, at least for as long as Palestine is occupied. But they have all supported me wholeheartedly from the start, because they understand that it is imperative that people like me – people who can – take action. They understand why I couldn’t remain a passive witness to Israel’s atrocities any longer.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza is the worst crime of our age. And governments around the world refuse to act. My own government, under Keir Starmer, still won’t even call a genocide a genocide. It is these politicians who have imperilled us – ordinary citizens forced to do their work for them, because they are too cowardly or too corrupt.

As we sailed, Israel’s genocide intensified, with new levels of brutality enacted against civilians in Gaza City. In the month we spent at sea, hundreds more children were slaughtered in their homes. A pregnant woman was beheaded, and more starving people were shot while collecting food aid.

And so we continued, through incendiary, explosive and chemical attacks on our boats; the hijacking of our radio systems; suspected sabotage and an Israeli smear campaign that sought to legitimise violence against us.

This journey has been tough. As someone who had only ever spent an afternoon on a sailing boat before, it is by far the most difficult physical and psychological thing I’ve ever had to do. But I know that when things are hard, they still pale in comparison to conditions in Gaza.

From day one, I have relied on the support of my friends on board. From the fellow journalists who helped film my videos, to the people who made me laugh and comforted me when I cried, to the old Irish captain, who said with reassuring scorn when some people worried about the weather: “I’m an Atlantic sailor. This is just a pond.”

That we got as far as we did, despite obstacle upon obstacle, is testament not to the organising of this mission, but to the tenacity of its participants, captains and crew. The ingredients of that tenacity are first and foremost love for Palestine, but also the bond we formed with each other within one or two days of being at sea together. This is living, breathing solidarity.

And it doesn’t end here. Our flotilla was the 38th attempt to break Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza, and there will be more. Israel thinks it can bully the whole world into getting its way. It thinks it can try to destroy an entire people with legal impunity, and it even thinks it deserves critical immunity among the general public. For weeks, it thought it could terrify and threaten our flotilla into retreat, but it failed. And it will fail and fail again. The world is finally alive to Palestinian suffering and Palestinian rights, and the time of Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide will soon be over.

Transferred to Ketziot

On 2 October 2025, Novara Media reported:

Ketziot: Israel’s notorious torture prison

Members of the Global Sumud Flotilla abducted by the Israeli military in international waters on Wednesday night are expected to be transferred to one of Israel’s most notorious torture prisons. The Ketziot Prison, located in the Negev Desert, has been the site of repeated abuses against Palestinian prisoners.

In 2021, footage emerged of dozens of Palestinians shackled and thrown to the ground, while Israeli guards kicked and punched them in turn. No officers were ever charged.

In 2023, a 38-year old Palestinian prisoner was beaten to death by a group of guards who wore helmets to disguise their faces. Thaer Abu Asab reportedly received a blow so hard that “a piece of his skull fell to the ground and blood filled the floor of the room,” according to his brother. Nineteen officers were investigated. None were prosecuted. Five we simply transferred to another unit.

And just last year, Israeli Human Rights Group B’Tselem released a report containing the testimonies of 12 Palestinians taken to Ketziot since October 7th. They described beatings with batons, torture, humiliation and sexual violence, as well as lack of sanitation and food, a failure of the guards to meet their basic needs.

Israel’s Flotilla prisoners are expected to be incarcerated in the prison for several days as a result of the Yom Kippur holiday, meaning that Israel will not begin deportations until Monday or Tuesday. Clare Azzougrah, whose 72-year-old RAF-veteran father Malcom Ducker has been detained, was told that all were being moved to the prison because “there are so many of them and they need to keep them together.” She added, “But I don’t believe them for a second.”

Novara Media has particular concerns for the safety of its journalist, @Kieran_Andrieu, a British journalist of Palestinian descent whose six siblings live in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Andrieu had intended, for his own safety, to sign a voluntary deportation order, allowing him to leave the country immediately. Now, given his heritage, Novara Media fears his health and life may be in grave danger if moved to the prison.

The British Foreign Office has said it is “very concerned”.

Shouted at by Itamar Ben-Gvir

On 3 October 2025, Novara Media reported:

File:Ben-Gvir amplified.jpg

Itamar Ben-Gvir with a loud hailer

Israeli soldiers forced Global Sumud Flotilla participants to kneel on the ground with their hands zip-tied for at least five hours after they were detained while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, their lawyers have said.

Adalah, a humanitarian organisation based in Haifa, said a team of lawyers had met with 331 of the 462 people who had their boats illegally seized by Israeli forces while in international waters on Wednesday and Thursday.

In a report published on Friday, Adalah said participants' rights had been “systematically violated” in Israeli detention, even before they were transferred to Ketziot, the notorious prison where they are now being held.

Detainees were denied basic necessities like drinking water, access to toilets and medication, Adalah said, as well as legal representation.

Lawyers waited outside Ashdod Port for nine hours on Thursday, Adalah said, while Israeli authorities denied them entry and instead began illegally processing cases and conducting hearings inside without them.

When the legal team eventually did gain access - working from 3:00pm on Thursday to 5:30am on Friday morning to support as many people as possible - several participants told them they had been violently woken whenever they tried to sleep, and subjected to threats and aggression.

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was filmed at the port, shouting at participants, in what Adalah described as “an act of humiliation and intimidation” and “a degrading display of control”.

Despite reporting these alarming details, Adalah said that everyone their legal team met with was in “relatively stable condition”.

Adalah confirmed that a lawyer had met with British-Palestinian journalist @kieran.andrieu at Ashdod port, and said that he was unharmed at the time. He is now believed to be in Ketziot Prison with other participants.

Detainees are expected to be held until Sunday or Monday and then deported.

Adalah said it is pursuing legal measures to “guarantee that every single participant is accounted for” and continuing prison visits.

Israel treated us terribly

After his release, Kieran Andrieu said:

Andrieu speaking at the airport in Turkey

“Israel treated us terribly. It denied people essential medicine. One night, yesterday night, we were shouting that someone was possibly having a heart attack. They didn’t come. They didn’t care.

"They gave us food that was infested with insects. They subjected some people to torture."

Novara Media’s @kieran_andrieu, who joined the Global Sumud Flotilla, said he took part to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and described the harsh conditions passengers faced.

“This is how Israel behaves towards Europeans. You can only imagine how it treats Palestinians every single day.”

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