KC activist was on ship bound for Gaza with aid. He's now in an Israeli prison

Eric Adler, The Kansas City Star on Oct 9, 2025

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The flagship Conscience was still in international waters, off the coast of Gaza, when Kansas City-raised Thomas Becker sent his most recent message on the social media site X.

“We are only a day or two from Gaza if Israel doesn’t illegally intercept us,” the 47-year-old activist, an alumnus of Rockhurt High School raised in Central Hyde Park, posted Tuesday.

His concern was prophetic. On Wednesday morning, a flotilla of vessels that were being led by the Conscience and which had been attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of war-torn Gaza, was intercepted by the Israeli military.

Becker, a Harvard-educated attorney who is currently the legal and policy director of the University Network for Human Rights in Connecticut, is one of 92 journalists, doctors, and activists who were taken into custody in Israel.

The event occurred on the same day that an agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas to exchange hostages and prisoners kept since the war ignited on October 7, two years ago this month. The exchange is seen as a possible breakthrough in ceasing hostilities and bringing the war to an end.

On Facebook Thursday, a friend of Becker’s posted a pre-recorded video from the activist who, she said, asked her to post the video in the event that he and the other were seized. and detained.

“My name is Thomas Becker,” he says in the video, aboard the Conscience, “I’m a journalist from the United States. If you are seeing this video, our boat has been seized in international waters by Israeli forces, and I’ve been illegally captured and detained. I appeal to all my friends and family to put pressure on the United States government to demand my release as soon as possible.”

In 2019, The Star published a profile of Becker, who at that time had scaled Mount Everest, unfurling an “I love KC” flag at the summit.

Israel has blockaded the water around Gaza, preventing boats and ships from delivering humanitarian aid. Passengers aboard eight other aid boats were also taken into custody. All are part of a joint mission between the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thousand Maldeens to Gaza campaign.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Wednesday released a statement saying that attorneys in Palestine had confirmed the 145 volunteers aboard the vessels “illegally abducted by the Israeli military from the Conscience and eight Thousand Maldeens sailboats” had been transferred to Israel’s Ketziot Prison in Naqab.

KC man held in Israeli prison

Becker’s father, Thomas Becker, told The Star on Thursday that he has not heard directly from his son, but he had received a voicemail from an official with the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem who had visited with his son in prison.

“He said that Thomas asked the person to contact me with the message that he’s basically OK,” Becker said. “The embassy person said that he appeared to be in good spirits, but the way he put it was, ‘it’s been quite an ordeal.’ My son said to him that the Israelis have been heavy-handed, was the word he used.”

Becker said he was also told that his son could be released and deported from Israel in about 48 hours. He has been concerned since his son was taken.

“Yeah, pretty, pretty worried,” he said. “His mom has had a rough time with it and continues to be upset. There’s some reports about mistreatment. Apparently he is in the worst prison over there, by reputation, and there’s some pretty rough stuff going on.

“It’s upsetting. We can’t wait to hear from him and see him back here.”

International response

The Times of Israel on Wednesday reported that the latest detentions come about a week after Israeli naval forces had already intercepted 42 vessels that were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, an attempt by 479 activists that included Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. The “vast majority” of those activists, the news site reports, have been deported from Israel.

The United Nations Human Rights Council also released a statement, saying “Israel must guarantee the safety and human rights of all individuals aboard the Conscience and other vessels of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.”

“This attack against unarmed civilians on the high seas is yet another violation of international law by Israel,” Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, said in the statement.

An accomplished drummer and guitarist, Becker has dedicated his adult life to issues of international human rights and social justice, documenting war crimes in Lebanon, genocide in Rwanda, and the torture of the indigenous people of India.

For nearly 20 years, he worked on human rights issues in Bolivia. He’s worked to expose death squads in Hondurus and Columbia.

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