A retired nurse and pro-Palestine activist gave an impassioned fundraising talk in Totnes aimed at raising awareness of alleged atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank.

Held at Totnes Civic Hall on Sunday, June 21, Resistance and Reflections on Palestinian Liberation was organised by The Hands Up Project and Totnes Friends of Palestine.

Speaker Leigh Cadno shared his experiences of working in Palestinian hospitals and with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

“The response was beautiful,” Leigh said. “I have been all over the country giving talks, but the empathy from the people in Totnes was beautiful. The worst things in the world bring out the best in people, and Totnes really displayed that.”

Leigh said he first visited Palestine in 2004 after his girlfriend at the time encouraged him to volunteer as a nurse.

“I was so horrified by the apartheid and wanted oppression,” he said. “After that, I went back five or six times. In 2011, I first saw the IDF shooting children.

“When I returned in 2025, I saw the horrors on a much larger scale.”

He later joined the Global March to Gaza campaign, a civilian-led initiative to march from Arish, Egypt, to the Rafah border crossing.

Leigh said he was subsequently invited to join the French Freedom Flotilla. He alleges he was detained by the Israeli military and subjected to torture and abuse.

“We were captured and taken to Ashdod Port, where we were spat on by thousands of IDF soldiers,” Leigh claims. “I was pushed to the ground so hard it dislocated my knee.

“When they finally brought a doctor to see us, I scoffed, and that led to my first violent naked strip search and beating.

“I was dragged by my genitals. Zip-tied, blindfolded, and beaten. They tried to put fingers inside me.”

Leigh further alleges he was held in a metal cage in 40°C desert heat before being transferred to an Israeli prison.

“They strip-searched me again and tried to rape me. They then kicked me so hard that I had internal hernias, but when we defied, soldiers pulled Palestinian prisoners out in front of us and set dogs on them.”

He said detainees later sang songs of solidarity, including “Green green grass of home”, and claimed they were tear-gassed and beaten in response.

In a statement previously shared with the BBC, Israel's Prison Service dismissed the accusations as false, saying all detainees were "held in accordance with the law".

The Israeli military rejected the allegations, saying its orders "require respectful and appropriate treatment of flotilla participants".

“I would do it all again,” Leigh said. “I would have been on the most recent flotilla, but the IDF said they would beat me to death because I have been arrested so often.

“Over the last three years, the biggest rise in infant mortality has been Israel. That says it all to me,” Leigh said. “We’re witnessing industrial murder.”

The Totnes event has raised £1,200 for Yafa Health for All, an emergency medicine clinic in Balata Refugee Camp, and The Hands Up Project, with future talks planned across Devon.