Earlier this morning, it was learned that Jihan Hafiz, US citizen and Democracy Now! correspondent aboard the Tahrir, had been deported from Israel after being detained at Givon prison for 72 hours. Soon after arriving in New York, she sat down with Amy Goodman to talk about the flotilla interception and her subsequent detention in Israel. She described the aggressive fashion in which the IDF commandeered the flotilla ships, the dehumanizing processing that took place once they arrived at Ashdod, and the ineffectiveness of US embassy officials in advocating for her and the other US citizen aboard the Tahrir, Kit Kittredge's, release.

Hafiz recounted guns being shoved into all of the ship's passengers' faces; thinking that Michael Coleman, an Australian delegate, was going to be shot if they didn't cooperate; being subjected to two strip searches (one of which was filmed); being classified as an activist and not as a member of the press by the whim of Israeli authorities; being allowed a call to a relative after 42 hours of detention when she should have been allowed to do so within 24 hours; being told 'don't say anything negative, don't say anything political' on the phone; being told by the US embassy to sign a deportation agreement that would have admitted that she entered Israel illegally and that would ban her from visiting Gaza for ten years. Meanwhile, $20,000 worth of Hafiz's equipment remains captive in Israel.

Watch the interview here: