Eric Lein, Bohemia activist captured as part of Gaza Global Sumud Flotilla, and another with LI ties return to NY

His mother and more than 100 supporters chanting "Free Palestine," some wearing kaffiyehs, greeted a Bohemia man and eight fellow activists who landed Wednesday night at Kennedy Airport nearly a week after Israeli forces captured them aboard a flotilla trying to deliver food and other aid to famine-stricken Gaza.

The activist, Eric Lein, 39, and his mother, Helen Lein, 73 and also of Bohemia, hugged inside Terminal 8. She brought him flowers.

The two hadn’t seen each other in over a month, before he departed Kennedy on Aug. 23, bound for Barcelona to join the flotilla. It aimed to break Israel’s longstanding blockade restricting supplies such as food by delivering symbolic amounts of food, medicine and other supplies.

A part-time Springs resident also was in the group of nine that landed at Kennedy.

Jeannot III, the vessel Lein was aboard — part of the Global Sumud Flotilla of 462 activists from around the world on 42 vessels — carried rice and baby formula, he said, both of which have been scarce in Gaza due to Israeli restrictions. Lein's vessel was intercepted Oct. 1 in international waters and he was freed Tuesday.

The flotilla activists’ return to America came hours after Israel and Hamas agreed to suspend fighting in Gaza so the remaining captives held by Hamas since 2023 can be freed in exchange for Palestinians who are in Israeli custody.

In an interview once he had cleared American customs, Eric Lein said that after weeks at sea, Israeli forces detained him and the others at gunpoint. He said they kept him zip-tied for hours, denied medicine to those in need and confined them in sweltering conditions at a prison in the Negev desert, where Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited to mock and scold them; those who objected were beaten.

“He started calling us terrorists and saying we were supporting terrorism and we were supporting baby killers, and people would respond, ‘You’re the baby killer, you’re the terrorist,’ ” said Lein, who grew up in Hicksville.

Israel denies any mistreatment. Ben-Gvir, in a statement, later said any of the flotilla activists "deserves the conditions of terrorists."

Lein said he saw Israeli forces shoving Swedish activist and flotilla participant Greta Thunberg and forcing her to pose with Israel’s flag.

He said he was inspired to join the flotilla after seeing images and video of Palestinian children killed and wounded in Gaza, and others scrounging for water. He also cited his experience in Egypt, where he tutored Palestinian kids, including those who had been orphaned by Israeli bombings.

“I’ve been looking at horrific, horrific images and videos for over two years,” he said. "I got pretty invested in it very early."

Israel's navy intercepted the flotilla before the boats got to Gaza, where, the United Nations says, there is "famine and widespread starvation" that is "driving a rise in hunger-related deaths."

An activist who lives in Springs during the summer, Michael Fix, 61, was aboard the lead vessel — with pallets of food and medical supplies like drugs, bandages, defibrillators, ointments, sutures and more — before it broke down off the coast of Crete after being drone-bombed; organizers blame Israel. He transferred to a second boat, which was water-cannoned, the one from which he was detained.

Fix, who went on a hunger strike in prison, said he’d joined pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Washington, D.C., New York City and East Hampton protesting what’s happening in Gaza and is outraged that few governments are stopping it.

“How can we let this go on and call ourselves human and civil and have common courtesy for one another?” he said. “It’s shameful that it’s going on and it’s come to this.”

In attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas and other groups killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, including at least 38 children, according to the Israeli government; the attackers abducted hundreds and injured thousands.

Since the attacks, the number of Palestinians killed by Israel's air and ground campaign has exceeded 67,000, with about half women and children, as of last month, according to Gaza's health ministry, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and militants. In addition, nearly 170,000 more have been injured, the ministry says. Israel's bombardment has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displacing about 90% of the population.

After the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, ordered “a complete siege” of Gaza, including food.

Israel controls Gaza’s borders, and has for decades, and since Tuesday has permitted varying amounts of food, medicine and other supplies to enter. Earlier this year, Israel cut off the flow of food and any other aid completely, blocking anyone else from bringing it in. Gaza's population is estimated at about 2 million.

Israel then loosened the blockade and replaced a U.N. aid program with one backed by U.S. contractors, and nearly 1,400 food-seeking Palestinians have been killed, mostly by Israel’s military, according to a report in August by the U.N.

On Wednesday night at Kennedy, the returning Americans asked supporters not to forget the Palestinians who continue to suffer.

Helen Lein, who had driven to Kennedy to greet Eric with his stepfather and several of Eric’s friends, said she's happy to have her son back but lamented that the flotilla couldn’t deliver the aid.

“I wish they had been able to get to Gaza. I was really hoping that they would be able to give them the food and the supplies that they needed,” she said. “But I’m glad he’s back.”

As she spoke, the sound of activists’ drums and pro-Palestinian chants filled the terminal, where counterterrorism officers from the Port Authority police stood nearby with zip ties. No one was detained. The activists left with friends and family.