"Day one in Israeli prison was my birthday," Zakaria "Zak" Khan tells The New Arab. "Interesting birthday."
It was not how the British activist expected to spend turning 25. Days earlier, he had been sailing towards Gaza aboard the Sumud Flotilla , hoping to help deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians living under siege. Instead, he found himself in Israeli detention after the vessel was intercepted at sea.
The decision to join the mission was rooted in a lesson he had carried since childhood. His father used to tell him that half of one's deen is getting married, and the other half is Palestine. With that in mind, Zak stepped away from a promising path in law and set sail for Gaza.
"Everyone who went there was willing to give up everything," he says. "We knew there was a risk of death, but we were willing to give up everything we had because we knew that these people were suffering."
"We weren't going there to save Palestine. Palestine had essentially saved us."
The activist was on night watch when Israeli forces intercepted the Saf Saf, the flotilla's mothership, carrying life-saving medical aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
"They told us to get on our knees with our faces to the floor and our hands behind our heads. We were kept in a specific position for a prolonged period," Zak tells The New Arab. The activists were bound with zip ties while the army conducted body searches, confiscated passports and held the activists outside in the cold for hours. They were then transferred to what Zak calls a "prison ship", where treatment became harsher .
"They stripped us of the jackets, we were left in the freezing cold in the middle of the night in the ocean," Zak recalls.
"They took their medications from us."
Zak was given a prisoner number, 41 and was moved through shipping containers into a fenced detention area made up of containers surrounded by barbed wire.
"I thought we were going to be human trafficked," Zak says, due to the sheer number of people being pushed into the containers.
Several individuals were also taken and held in solitary confinement over their allergies, while another activist, Richard, was taken and beaten after chanting "Free Palestine", with sounds of the assault being radiated throughout the containers.
"Shipping containers are essentially speakers, where sound just becomes amplified from inside them," Zak explains. "We heard [Richard] getting beaten very, very badly."
The activists tried to maintain morale despite the freezing night and extreme heat during the day, sharing a mini baguette and 500ml of water between five or six comrades.
They were unable to sleep properly with the Israeli force's repeated "count" procedures and flooding the sleeping areas with water, a procedure Zak described as a method of sleep deprivation.
With their comrades missing, a lack of protection from the cold, their medication seized, and several women asking for menstrual products, the activists agreed they would no longer comply with the force's demands until they saw proof of life and received their medication.
"We all collectively agreed that the next time they came in and asked something of us, we would all peacefully sit on the floor with our hands on our knees," Zak said.
Israeli forces gave the activists an ultimatum: Either leave peacefully and be deported back to Greece or be taken to Israel. But when some refused to leave until they saw proof of life, Israeli forces became violent.
"[Israeli forces] came in, they threw percussion grenades, stun grenades, sound grenades, they fired non-lethal rounds at people," Zak says, noting this is when multiple women were assaulted in front of everyone.
"I was willing to stay because I wouldn't have felt comfortable getting off the ship knowing that there were still other people who were being held on board."
Zak was one of the first people in the group who was taken and beaten by four Israeli naval forces.
"I was repeatedly punched in the mouth and the jaw," Zak says, which resulted in being hospitalised over concerns of a fractured jaw.
"I was also shot in the leg with a non-lethal round at this point, my hands were zip tied, they dragged me across the floor, they forced me to kneel for about an hour with my face to the floor."
At this point, the forces finally picked Zak up, placed a life jacket on him and threw him into the Greek Coast Guard ship, where the activist and his crew were then taken to Crete waters .
"Really great birthday," Zak jokes, noting that they never got proof of life until after they were released.
Looking back on the experience, Zak says it was "scary" confronting the Israeli forces, but angry over the fact that he didn't get to deliver the medical aid to Gaza and was worried about his two comrades Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek , who were, at the time, in Israeli detention.
The activist couldn't stay in Crete for long, as he had to fly back home because he was running in the local elections as a Green Party candidate.
"I knew that the only way to make systemic change, the ones that I wanted to see, not just for myself, but for those around me, would have been to get into a position where I could make a real, tangible impact," Zak tells The New Arab .
As thousands of candidates were out canvassing and campaigning, Zak spent his time aboard the flotilla, seeking to show voters that the Green Party truly supported the Palestinian cause.
"The reason why I went was to show the voting in public that the Green Party, number one, is the only party to vote for if you want to see systemic change against this genocide," Zak explains.
"The best way to do that was to, essentially, have Green Party candidates elected and show them that our solidarity with Palestine is not only lip service, but we put it into practice as well."
Zak chose the Green Party because he felt it understood the importance of defending human rights.
"We are a party that understands that if we do not defend human rights internationally, we have no chance of defending them domestically, and therefore, we have to look after people who are abroad and at home," Zak says.
When asked why he's standing in the local election, Zak's first reason is "always Palestine".
Running in Hampshire, the candidate noted that the council has £300 million invested in companies complicit in Israel's genocidal war.
"That's 300 million pounds that could have instead gone into local communities, plus infrastructure," Zak notes.
"This is money that is being stolen from ordinary working people, from local communities, and it should instead be taken and divested from Israel, a genocidal apartheid state, and it should be reinvested into people who pay taxes, who live locally."
As election day passed , a Conservative candidate won the seat Zak was running for in Farnborough South.
Reflecting on the result, Zak says he's feeling "really good", noting that it was the first time a Green Party candidate had stood in the seat in almost a decade.
"Despite it being my first campaign, I was 24 years old when I decided to do it, and I went from zero votes under, like in this seat, to 750, which is no small achievement," Zak says.
"It's definitely something to be proud of, and now I can get to build on momentum for that, and hopefully next year, or, if not the year after, definitely secure a victory in this seat."
Looking back at his campaign, the activist says it wasn't really about his run for election , but what it meant for the whole party.
"My personal goal, this mission, it wasn't really about me winning," Zak says.
"It was about making sure there are places where the Green Party has the ability to win, that they do so, and that they also secure the Palestine vote, the anti-genocide vote, the anti-war vote."
"It's not really about my campaign, it's about the greater good for the entire party, for the entire country." Anam Alam is a staff writer at The New Arab. She frequently writes about human rights and social issues, including women's rights and sex education Follow her on X: @itsanamalam