[Interview] Haecho knew she would possibly die. Attempting to convey assist to Gaza was well worth the threat.

Morning got here. Haecho tidied up her house, then wrote a letter to her mother and father. She wrote out her will and addressed it to The Frontiers, the pacifist group she belongs to. She doesn’t contemplate herself non secular, however all the time prays earlier than going someplace. She mentioned a brief prayer that day. After studying the letters her pals gave her, she headed for the airport. Her coronary heart was racing, and she or he was nervous. 

It was Sept. 17, 2025, the day that Haecho, whose actual title is Kim A-hyun, 27, left for France to board a ship carrying reduction provides meant for the Gaza Strip in Palestine.

Over 150 activists from 30 nations joined Haecho on the flotilla that departed for Gaza. On Oct. 8, her vessel was detained by Israeli troopers. 

Haecho and the opposite activists on the flotilla had been detained in an Israeli jail. After three days in detention, they had been deported to Istanbul, Turkey. Haecho was the primary Korean to board a reduction boat sure for Gaza. The juxtaposition of her easy voyage and the pressured detention is a testomony to the brutality of the battle. Haecho is at present recuperating in France. On Oct. 13, she spoke to the Hankyoreh 21 over video name. 

Haecho holds up a flag on the ship Jonah’s Whale opposing the development of a naval base in Jeju on Could 27, 2025. (Search engine optimisation Bo-mi/Hankyoreh)

Concern disappeared throughout coaching for being captured 

“I believe I used to be essentially the most afraid and nervous proper earlier than I left. The one factor I knew was my date of arrival and my flight quantity. I didn’t have anybody to seek the advice of who’d been there earlier than me,” Haecho instructed the Hankyoreh 21. 

“Israel had warned navigators that they’d detain for lengthy durations anyone who tried to go to Gaza, so I figured it’d be harmful. I assumed that I actually would possibly die,” she mentioned. 

Since 2010, peace activists have made repeated efforts to interrupt the blockade on Gaza by crusing to the strip on boats carrying assist. Each time, the Israeli navy has apprehended and seized the boats, and the activists have been detained and deported. Earlier than the battle, boats sometimes departed for Gaza a couple of times a yr. In 2025, two years into the battle, these makes an attempt have grow to be extra frequent and far bigger in scale. In October alone, the International Sumud Flotilla despatched over almost 50 vessels to Gaza carrying assist, and the Thousand Madleens despatched eight. 

However as extra boats try to interrupt the siege, Israel has grow to be much more aggressive in its makes an attempt to cease them. First, the International Sumud Flotilla was attacked by what gave the impression to be Israeli drones. In Could 2025, a vessel with the Freedom Flotilla was attacked by a drone, leaving 4 injured. 

On Sept. 19, Haecho began coaching with different activists in Sicily, Italy, on methods to reply if their boat was captured.

“Whereas coaching for what might occur, I felt, ‘We’re on this collectively. After assembly the opposite activists, I used to be now not afraid,” she mentioned. 

Haecho mentioned she’d been occupied with a voyage to Gaza for “a very very long time.”

“In my time crusing for peace, I’d all the time been pondering Gaza could be the following step. The truth is, I’d needed to set out from Jeju Island — and I might have, if I’d had the time,” she mentioned.

Haecho had discovered methods to pilot a yacht in a crusing program referred to as World Peace College, organized by The Frontiers in 2022.

In 2023, she campaigned in opposition to battle in a 107-day voyage from Gangjeong Village on Jeju Island to Okinawa after which on to Taiwan.

In 2024, she denounced nuclear weapons aboard the Golden Rule, a ship primarily based within the US.

In 2025, she captained the ship Jonah’s Whale on a voyage for peace from Gangjeong Village to the North Korean aspect of Imjingak, in Paju.

What Haecho skilled in these voyages was her physique changing into a medium for conveying a message.

“After I crossed the ocean to a tiny island so small there weren’t even any vehicles there, I might really feel my physique changing into a conduit between right here and there. Borders might be drawn on the land, however within the ocean, all the pieces is linked,” she mentioned.

Haecho conceived the opportunity of connecting Gaza and Korea in the same approach.

“The concept was that if I went to Gaza, I might function a hyperlink between Korea and Gaza. And if I died there, it could serve to remind Korean society of Gaza as soon as extra. The truth of activism is that you simply don’t dare to hope for some large success. It’s an countless strategy of hammering and resisting. I simply thought I could possibly be one hyperlink within the chain,” she mentioned.
 

Haecho participating within the “Thousand Madleens to Gaza.” (courtesy of Gangjeong Buddies/The Frontiers)

A stench greets her upon arrival on the jail

Haecho boarded the ship sure for Gaza on Sept. 27 and sailed for 11 straight days.

She made some extent of claiming that passing by means of calm seas within the firm of like-minded people was “a contented time.”

Then at 5:40 am, on Oct. 8, Israeli troopers boarded the ship.

“The ship had entered the hazard zone, however I’d vaguely hoped we might make it by means of the night time. We had been nonetheless greater than 150 km away [from the Gaza coast],” Haecho recalled.

“One of many activists on watch woke me up. You see, it was my job to movie the ultimate moments [before the ship was seized] and transmit the file earlier than throwing the cellphone away. No sooner had I completed that then the troopers got here overseas,” she mentioned.

The troopers had the activists sit in a row and lift their fingers in a gesture of give up. Then they threw the ship’s radio overboard and severed the strains.

On one other ship within the flotilla, Israeli troopers shot out safety cameras.

“My physique trembled with a concern I’d by no means felt earlier than. There have been lights throughout us within the darkness, which made me marvel why there have been so many troopers. I noticed the opposite seven ships being taken one after one other.”

Briefly order, Haecho was moved to the navy vessel. Eight activists had been confined to a single room for six hours whereas the ship was in movement.

Round time for dinner, the ship’s rocking subsided, and troopers yelled on the activists to come back out.

“As quickly as we got here out, the troopers pulled our fingers behind our backs and pushed us right into a room, one after the other, the place they tied our fingers with cables. Some individuals had been sure so tightly they groaned with ache,” Haecho mentioned.

“The climate was very chilly, however they solely allow us to put on a single layer. We had been blindfolded and led onto the bus one individual at a time. I couldn’t inform the place we had been going or whether or not the individual beside me was an ally or an enemy.”

Haecho and her crewmates spent the period of the lengthy journey to the jail in restraints. A pungent stench assaulted her nostril upon her arrival. Haecho instinctively knew she had reached a jail. The feminine jail official made Haecho strip utterly bare earlier than conducting a physique search. 

“I might hear somebody being overwhelmed and screaming. Once we tried to protest, [the Israeli soldiers] instantly threatened us with weapons. I assumed, ‘There’s no saying what would possibly occur now. If I don’t keep calm, somebody would possibly instantly retaliate with violence.’”

Haecho recalled the coaching she had been given in Sicily: All the time keep calm and chorus from talking. She had been taught to be as cautious as doable within the face of unpredictable violence. 

“I used to be dealt with so roughly that the marks from the restraints remained on my wrists for 2 days after my launch. Nonetheless, I held again from screaming. I conveyed my resistance by means of my eyes, stored my face as clean as doable, and responded solely when questioned.”

Haecho rests within the lounge of a Turkish airport on Oct. 11, 2025, with fellow activists who had been launched from Israeli detention. (courtesy of Haecho)

“I can’t eat the meals Israel offers”

The activist refused the meals given to her in jail as she didn’t need to eat meals Israel offered. However with water, there was no alternative; the imprisoned activists weren’t given any consuming water. 

“The toilet had a rest room and a sink, so I drank water from the sink in small portions. The troopers drank water proper in entrance of us, as if to mock us. We needed to maintain asking for bathroom paper to get any in any respect.”

At first, the Israeli troopers made gestures that made it appear as if they had been listening, however the activists rapidly discovered this was deception and mockery. 

“It didn’t take lengthy to understand the troopers had been mendacity. They mentioned, ‘You’ll be able to meet a lawyer,’ but it surely turned out this wasn’t the case. Once we requested for medication, they’d say ‘OK’ after which we’d get nothing. I might endure the ache I used to be going by means of as a result of I used to be affected by menstrual cramps, however one fellow activist had diabetes, which requires you to take medicine regularly. They had been by no means given any medication,” Haecho recalled. 

When Haecho requested for medication, she was made to satisfy with a so-called physician. “They requested how we felt, made us spin round in entrance of a digicam, and had us signal some incomprehensible paperwork.” But the medicine was finally not offered. 

There have been additionally individuals referred to as “attorneys” or “judges,” however they lacked the information required for his or her occupation, and the activists quickly realized it was all an act. When Haecho’s cramps worsened, she requested for Tylenol. She solely acquired a retort: “Tylenol? What’s that? We don’t have that.”

The repeated refusals instilled concern. “We had been utterly reduce off from the skin. I puzzled if anybody even knew what my state of affairs was. The Korean consul in Israel additionally mentioned, ‘There’s actually no authorized recourse obtainable.’ For us, [Israel’s occupation of Palestine] is what is illegitimate, however to them, we’re those breaking the regulation,” she mentioned. 

However, Haecho discovered consolation in small gestures of solidarity. She noticed that somebody had written “Free Palestine” on the wall — a hint of activists who had been captured earlier than her. She additionally found pens, rosary bracelets, and medication hidden in numerous spots inside the cell. “I might discover some reassurance in issues like that.”

At night time, Haecho slept on a really skinny mattress and blanket, which had been worn and soiled. “It appeared many individuals had used it for a really very long time,” she mentioned. In these moments, Haecho considered Palestine. “I knew [the Israelis] had been treating us unfairly. However our state of affairs was nonetheless significantly better than what imprisoned Palestinians or individuals in Gaza are dealing with,” she famous. 

Her encounters with Israeli troopers are additionally etched into her reminiscence. The troopers had been removed from skilled or competent — they might repeatedly make errors whereas counting and choose up work that they’d already completed. Regardless of such blunders, they constantly tried to proselytize their beliefs to their prisoners.
 
“The Israeli troopers stored attempting to indoctrinate us. They regularly emphasised how a lot they’d suffered from the violence of Hamas, however turned their backs on the ache of the Palestinians. That was once I realized that these individuals have additionally been brainwashed.”
 
Their blind religion in Israel’s propaganda was what allowed them to hold out such atrocious acts of genocide. This show of naivety saddened Haecho. 

“Their ignorance and gullibility prevented them from totally understanding the brutal penalties of violence and homicide. I noticed that this historical past of colonization was constructed on the lives of strange people and began to marvel how we might untie this sophisticated knot, which had grow to be extra tangled over 70 years of colonial rule,” she mentioned. 

“My loss of life could be a lot simpler than what the Palestinians are struggling”

Haecho was launched on the third day of her detention. Troopers woke the activists in the midst of the night time and led them away, one after one other.

That they had one other meaningless “physician’s go to” and had been paraded in entrance of a digicam. The troopers mentioned the activists could be going house, but it surely was exhausting to credit score their phrases.

“I used to be afraid they is perhaps mendacity and would simply ship us to a different jail,” Haecho mentioned.

Shortly earlier than daybreak, the troopers checked Haecho’s passport and instructed her to board a bus. She was lastly launched.

Haecho put up some resistance at first. “I requested them to let me say my goodbyes to the individuals within the cell. After this was over, I figured I would by no means see them once more. However ultimately, I needed to obey the troopers and depart.”

Because the bus handed by means of the desert, the air inside was sweltering. When Haecho requested the troopers to at the least open the home windows, they curtly replied that the home windows weren’t purposeful.

After a protracted drive, the bus lastly stopped — luckily, at an airport.

“I felt reduction wash over me as quickly as I boarded the airplane. As soon as we had been all aboard, we shouted ‘Free Palestine.’ It was a reasonably emotional takeoff,” she mentioned.

From the window of the airplane, Haecho regarded down upon Gaza, a dreary panorama of bombed-out cities.

“I used to be torn about leaving the land of Palestine behind. I used to be additionally anxious about being the one member of my boat’s crew to be launched,” she mentioned.

The three French activists who had been aboard the Alaa Al Najjar with Haecho had been finally deported to Jordan on Oct. 13.

What had pushed Haecho to threat her life crusing to Gaza? Within the interview, she spoke of feeling immensely indebted.

“A whole lot of teams are on the market doing their greatest, however I felt their voices weren’t reaching very far. Help shipments to Gaza had been reduce off, and I felt fixed guilt in regards to the horrific issues I noticed occurring there day-after-day,” she mentioned.

“I assumed that even when I had been to die on the voyage, my loss of life could be a lot simpler than what persons are struggling in Palestine proper now.”

One other motivating issue for Haecho was the ability of the Palestinian liberation motion.

“Palestinians have unbending pleasure regardless of dealing with excessive ranges of hardship. Films in regards to the Palestinians present younger kids dealing with brutal navy oppression nonetheless figuring out themselves as Palestinians and taking pleasure of their historical past and tradition. That got here as an incredible shock to me. I believe the liberation of Palestine would encourage individuals to withstand totalitarianism world wide,” she mentioned.

Many individuals insisted on crusing to Gaza regardless of understanding they might be arrested. Their actions stand as an emphatic refusal to permit genocide to occur on their watch. Haecho hopes extra individuals will be part of that trigger.

“The individuals on the boats included Israeli nationals, Palestinians, Muslim ladies, and residents of Malaysia, which has reduce off diplomatic relations with Israel. Individuals extra weak than me nonetheless had the braveness to hitch the flotilla. They had been all there due to Palestine, which is one thing I hope extra individuals will care about,” Haecho mentioned.

By Shin Da-eun, workers reporter

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