A PROMINENT US workers’ rights activist has been brutally beaten by Israeli soldiers after having attempted to break the illegal blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza, his comrades said today.

Christian Smalls, co-founder and former president of the worker-led Amazon Labour Union, was one of 21 civilian activists aboard the Handala, an activist-run ship attempting to deliver food, medicine, baby formula and prosthetics to the children of Gaza. 

On Saturday night, as the Handala was in international waters, about 40 nautical miles from Palestinian waters, the Israeli military boarded the ship, took the activists to Israel, and placed them in detention — an act normally considered to be in violation of international maritime law.

On Sunday, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the ship’s operators, shared a video of the 21 activists — filmed before their kidnapping — announcing their intention to go on hunger strike if “Israel attacks them.”

In it, they say: “We will not take food and water from the same entity that is denying the same thing to an entire civilian population.”

Fourteen of the activists remain in Israeli detention and are still on hunger strike.

Freedom Flotilla Coalition posted on social today that Mr Smalls, the only black member of the crew, has been subjected to the worst treatment from Israel’s soldiers.

Upon arrival at prison, the organisation said the soldiers “choked him and kicked him in the legs, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back.

“When his lawyer met with him, Christian was surrounded by six members of Israel’s special police unit.

“The Freedom Flotilla Coalition condemns this violence against Chris and demand accountability for the assault and discriminatory treatment he faced.”