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When a man from Leicestershire left his family's home in Earl Shilton to embark on a peace mission to the Middle East he suspected he might face potential dangers.

But he never imagined that he would be chased by Israeli warships, captured, imprisoned and have a gun held to his head.

The Gaza Strip

Adie Mormech was on board a ship carrying aid and activists to the Gaza Strip, in defiance of Israel's blockade of the disputed territory, when Israeli forces carrying weapons boarded the vessel and he was arrested at gun point.

Adie and the other members of the Free Gaza Movement knew they were breaking the rules by trying to get aid through to the disputed strip.

Adie spent five nights in an Israeli jail before being deported back to the UK on 06 July 2009.

But when Adie and his colleagues were arrested, the 31 year-old thought that he might never make it home.

Listen: Gaza Man

Adie has been telling BBC Leicester of how he feared he would be killed by Israeli forces after being captured whilst on a peace mission...

"I heard about these boats going out to Gaza and I was aware of the very difficult humanitarian situation that was going on in Gaza.

"There were 21 of us of on the boat, including six British nationals, journalists, former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire.

"We were taking aid over. In the cargo we had toys, cement, medical supplies and more.

"I brought along teaching English teaching books. I was going to be working with children and universities.

"The people on the boat were peace workers and we wanted to get supplies to those that most need it."

"We saw some Israeli warships, which started to come closer and closer. They said that if we carry on they will open fire.

"At that point we communicated back to say, 'we are civilians, we are on a peace mission and you have no right to open fire on us'.

"It was very dark, they were coming closer and closer and they were shinning enormous lights straight at us.

"I had a sudden flash in my head that I would have bullets straight in me.

"We were still carrying on, but now they had cut our tracking, radio and GPS. So, for five hours from two in the morning to seven the Israeli warships followed us down.

"But we carried on, we were using a compass - we just headed south. Then the GPS suddenly came back on and we were only eight miles off course."

The Arrest

Adie says they were on the edge of Palestinian waters when they were again warned by the Israeli warships to retreat or there would be consequences.

"We said we're going straight to Gaza and we are not going to be in Palestinian waters.

"We were on a stand off, we were waiting - it was quite tense, but we decided to carry on. We went into Palestinian waters and then suddenly they decided to converge on us.

"The fast military boats started to come towards us. One of them came right up to us and jumped the ship. They were on in seconds - it was the Israeli special forces.

"They were all masked up and they had weapons. They threw me to the ground, put my head against the floor and dragged me to the room."

Adie says he and others were sitting in the lower deck while the boat made the slow journey into Palestinian territory.

"We want to help over there. There are people in need there and we have a right to go there.

"But they took us to a detention centre, where we were kept overnight. They then later took us to a prison, that's when we realised that we were incarcerated.

"Altogether we were there for six nights. In the prison itself, it was a small room and there was 14 people in it."

Adie said their cell was roughly seven by four metres in size, there was a toilet, a shower, and a small window at the top of the room.

"The food was bad. We had to stand to attention at six in the morning every morning when they came in, then we would get into bed after and that would happen a lot throughout the day.

"Obviously we were deprived of our freedom, but we got so much help from the other inmates."

Adie believes that in hindsight he would still put himself in a dangerous position.

"Whatever happens to us as British nationals we'll always be better treated than the real victims of these crimes."

Listen: The Mother's Views

But what did Adie's mum think of his involvement in this kind of highly contentious and divisive cause?

BBC Leicester's Ben Jackson spoke to Ruth Mormech about what she thought and went through...

"We hadn't realised the severity of all the risks. Adie played it down very, very well before he went. We thought he was on a good will mission, which we supported.

"We were informed the day after he left by a phone call from someone in Cyprus. They said that the boat had been hijacked and they had been taken to a port in Israel."

Ruth was alarmed by the situation, but she didn't think it was a cause for concern at that point. It was only when she didn't hear any news for two days that she began to worry.

"Finally, it was lovely to hear Adie's voice on the phone. Someone in their cell had a phone and kindly let them use it. Fortunately, every other day we were getting news from the Free Gaza Movement in England.

"We kept waiting, but as time went on it became more and more frightening for us here."

Despite Ruth's ordeal she was proud of Adie and pleased to have him back home safely.