KC native detained by Israel trying to bring aid to Gaza released, returning to US
A Kansas City-raised activist who was one of dozens taken into custody by Israeli forces last week while attempting to provide aid to Gaza was released and deported Friday, his family said.
Thomas Becker, a Rockhurst High School graduate who was raised in Hyde Park, is the legal and policy director of the University Network for Human Rights in Connecticut. Becker, who was intercepted on a humanitarian flotilla Wednesday trying to bring aid to the war-torn Gaza Strip, was deported to Istanbul Friday, his father said over text Saturday morning.
“... He talked to us briefly on a borrowed phone there,” said Thomas Becker’s dad, also named Thomas Becker. “He said he was fine and was trying to arrange a flight to DC but we have heard nothing since.”
KC native attempting to provide Gaza aid
On Tuesday, Becker was aboard the flagship Conscience off the coast of Gaza, when he posted 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 posted.
But on Wednesday morning, the vessels led by the flagship Conscience attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of a starving Gaza were intercepted by the Israeli military.
Becker, who’s a Harvard-educated attorney, was 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 Oct. 7, two years ago this month. The exchange has been 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.”
Becker’s father had said last Thursday that he had received a voicemail from an official with the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem who had visited with his son in prison in Israel.
“He said that Thomas asked the person to contact me with the message that he’s basically OK,” Thomas Becker said Thursday. “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.”
International discourse
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 Negev.
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 Colombia.
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.
Previous reporting from The Star’s Eric Adler was used in this story.
This story was originally published October 12, 2025 at 1:59 PM.
