India, Oct. 5 -- Dozens of international activists deported from Israel arrived in Istanbul on Saturday with harrowing accounts of mistreatment and violence after their Gaza-bound flotilla was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters.

"We were treated like animals," said Paolo Romano, an Italian regional councillor, as he stepped off the plane in Istanbul. They put us on our knees, facing down. And if we moved, they hit us. They were laughing at us, insulting us and hitting us," he told AFP.

The activists, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a mission aiming to deliver aid to war-ravaged Gaza, described their ordeal, saying that they were handcuffed, beaten, denied water and medicine, and held in prison under brutal conditio...