Israel to deport Gaza activists including Greta Thunberg

JERUSALEM — A group of activists – including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg – who were detained aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat, have been taken to a Tel Aviv airport for deportation, Israel said on Tuesday.

The yacht carrying 12 people trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza was towed to the Israeli port city of Ashdod on Monday, after it was seized by Israeli forces in the early hours.

Dismissing it as a "selfie yacht", Israel said the passengers had arrived at Ben Gurion Airport to return to their home countries.

"Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority," the Israeli foreign ministry said on X.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the activist group operating the vessel, said all campaigners were "being processed and transferred into the custody of Israeli authorities".

"They may be permitted to fly out of Tel Aviv as early as tonight," it said on social media.

Organizers said the Madleen was aiming to bring a "symbolic" amount of aid to Gaza in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade. They said it was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters.

The aid on board the Madleen includes rice and baby formula, the FFC said.

Citizens of Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Turkey were onboard the vessel – among them Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament, and Omar Faiad, a French journalist with Al Jazeera.

The boat set sail from Italy on 1 June to raise awareness of starvation conditions in Gaza and deliver aid.

Israel says its blockade on Gaza is necessary to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas fighters there.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Israel would act against any attempt to breach the blockade.

The FFC has argued that the sea blockade is illegal, characterizing Katz's statement as an example of Israel threatening the unlawful use of force against civilians and "attempting to justify that violence with smears".

In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 Turkish activists when they boarded the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was leading an aid flotilla towards Gaza.

Israel recently began to allow limited aid into Gaza after a three-month land blockade, prioritising distribution through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by Israel and the US but widely condemned by humanitarian groups.

A map showing the journey of the Madleen yacht. It left the Italian city of Catania on 1 June and was intercepted by Israeli forces on 9 June, near the Ashdod port.

In a post on X early on Monday, the Israeli foreign ministry said: "While Greta and others attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity – and which included less than a single truckload of aid – more than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks, and in addition, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed close to 11 million meals directly to civilians in Gaza.

"There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip – they do not involve Instagram selfies."

It is 20 months since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,880 people have been killed in Gaza since, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. — BBC