Israel deports Greta Thunberg and 170 other Gaza flotilla activists

Israel says it has deported 171 more foreign activists, including Swedish climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg, who were detained when Israeli forces intercepted a flotilla trying to breach its naval blockade of Gaza to deliver aid last week.

The Israeli foreign ministry said the activists were flown to Greece and Slovakia, and that Greek, Slovakian, French, Italian, British and US citizens were among them.

It posted photos of Thunberg wearing a grey tracksuit and walking through an airport.

So far, the ministry has announced the deportations of 341 of the more than 470 people who were on board the 42 intercepted boats in the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF).

Organisers said their goal was to “break the illegal siege on Gaza by sea, open a humanitarian corridor, and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people”.

They said the interceptions violated international maritime and humanitarian law.

Israeli authorities said they enforced a legal blockade and called the flotilla a “PR stunt”.

They also rejected as “fake news” allegations from some of the activists that they had been mistreated and denied basic rights during their detention.

Lawyer Rafael Borrego was among the Spanish activists who told reporters on arrival in Madrid on Sunday night that they had suffered “repeated physical and mental abuse”.

“They beat us, dragged us along the ground, blindfolded us, tied our hands and feet, put us in cages and insulted us,” he alleged.

Nine Swiss nationals who returned to Geneva on Sunday also complained about what they called the “inhumane detention conditions and the humiliating and degrading treatment”, Reuters news agency cited a statement as saying.

The Israeli foreign ministry’s statement on Monday insisted that the flotilla activists’ legal rights “were and will continue to be fully upheld”.

“The lies they are spreading are part of their pre-planned fake news campaign,” it said.

The ministry said the only violent incident happened when a Spanish citizen bit a female medical worker at Ketziot prison following a routine medical examination ahead of her deportation on Monday. The medic sustained minor injuries, it added.

The GSF’s boats set sail from Barcelona after experts from the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirmed that there was a famine in Gaza City and warned that it could spread to central and southern Gaza within weeks.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has said at least 460 Palestinians have died from the effects of malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 since the famine declaration.

The UN has called on Israel to urgently lift the blockade on Gaza and allow the entry of life-saving material through all means possible.

It has said that as the occupying power, Israel is obliged under international law to ensure sufficient food and medical supplies reach Gaza’s population.

Israel has insisted it acts in accordance with international law and facilitates the entry of aid.

It has also disputed the IPC’s findings and the health ministry’s figures, and denied the allegation – most recently made by a UN commission of inquiry – that its forces have committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 67,160 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.