Israel deports all foreign activists from Gaza flotilla
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JERUSALEM: Israel said on Thursday (May 21) 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 activists said earlier on Thursday that the majority of the flotilla members were "en route for deportation" from Ramon Airport in Israel's far south.
In a statement, Adalah added that the activists had been held at Israel's Ktziot prison, in the Negev Desert near Gaza.
Türkiye had announced it was sending planes to Israel to "bring our citizens and participants from third countries to Türkiye via special charter flights we will organise today".
Foreign ministry sources said "three flights" with a capacity for "more than 400 passengers" were being sent to Ramon airport.
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.
INFLAMMATORY VIDEO
Around 50 vessels under the Global Sumud Flotilla set sail from Türkiye 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.
He was also criticised at home by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, as well as by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
In the latest diplomatic backlash, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he had asked the European Union to sanction Ben Gvir "for the unacceptable acts committed against the flotilla".
The United Kingdom announced it had summoned Israel's most senior diplomat in Britain following "the inflammatory video".
Francesca Albanese, an outspoken UN expert on the Palestinian territories, called on Italy, where she is from, to take action.
The treatment of the flotilla activists "is a luxury compared to what is inflicted on Palestinians in Israeli prisons," Albanese wrote on X.
"Words do not suffice: let Italy stop opposing the suspension" of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, she added.
"THEY KICKED US"
Adalah's legal director Suhad Bishara told AFP Wednesday that the group's lawyers had been able to give legal counsel to "many" of the hundreds of activists, though she added that others had faced court hearings without legal assistance.
"We know of at least two participants who were hospitalised ... both of them were shot by rubber bullets," Bishara said, adding that others said they feared they had broken ribs.
Alessandro Mantovani, an Italian journalist detained with the flotilla activists and deported before the others, told reporters at Rome's Fiumicino airport Thursday that he and others had been "taken to Ben Gurion airport in handcuffs and with chains on our feet and put on a flight to Athens".
"They beat us up. They kicked us and punched us and shouted 'Welcome to Israel'," he said of his treatment by Israeli security forces.
Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, under blockade since 2007.
Since the start of the Gaza war, sparked by Hamas's Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the territory has suffered severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential supplies, with Israel at times halting aid deliveries entirely.
A previous flotilla was intercepted last month in international waters off Greece, with most activists expelled to Europe.
Two were brought to Israel, detained for several days and then deported.
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