JERUSALEM: Israel said on Thursday it had deported all the foreign activists seized by Israeli forces from a Gaza-bound flotilla, following global outcry over their treatment in custody.
More than 430 activists from countries around the world had been placed in detention in Israel after they were intercepted at sea on Monday while making the latest in a string of attempts to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked widespread condemnation and diplomatic backlash on Wednesday by posting a video showing the detained activists with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground.
Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman, Oren Marmorstein, said on Thursday that “all foreign activists from the PR flotilla have been deported from Israel.”
“Israel will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza,” he added. The legal centre representing the flotilla members said earlier on Thursday that the majority were “en route for deportation” from Ramon Airport in Israel’s far south.
Adalah said that the activists had been held at Israel’s Ktziot prison, in the Negev Desert near Gaza.
Turkey had announced it was sending charter flights to Israel to repatriate Turkish citizens and participants from third countries.
Turkish foreign ministry sources later confirmed that “a total of 422 flotilla participants, 85 of whom are our citizens, are being brought to our country on special charter flights.” A spokesman for Adalah said activists from Egypt had been transferred to Taba at Egypt’s border with Israel, while those from Jordan had been transferred to Aqaba.
Around 50 vessels under the Global Sumud Flotilla set sail from Turkey last week in the latest attempt by activists to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza, after Israeli forces intercepted a previous convoy last month. The deportations come after footage posted by Ben Gvir, captioned “Welcome to Israel” and showing the minister heckling and waving an Israeli flag among the detained activists, sparked resounding condemnation by governments around the world, from Italy to Spain and Australia to Canada.
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