Newsletters
Türkiye said 422 Global Sumud Flotilla participants, including 85 Turkish citizens and dozens of foreign nationals, were being brought to Türkiye after Israel deported activists seized from a Gaza-bound flotilla.
Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said the group had left Israel’s Ramon Airport under the supervision of Türkiye’s Embassy officials in Tel Aviv as part of evacuation efforts coordinated by the ministry.
“As part of the evacuation efforts coordinated by the Foreign Ministry, our citizens and third-country participants of the Global Sumud Flotilla, who were detained by Israeli forces, departed from Ramon Airport under the supervision of our Tel Aviv Embassy officials and set off for our country,” the sources said.
“With special flights, 422 flotilla participants, including 85 of our citizens, are being brought to our country,” they added.
France said 37 French nationals who were part of the Gaza-bound flotilla were also being deported by Israeli authorities to Türkiye.
Israel said Thursday it had deported all foreign activists seized by Israeli forces from the flotilla, after global condemnation over their treatment in custody.
More than 430 activists from countries around the world had been detained in Israel after they were intercepted at sea Monday while attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said all foreign activists from what he called the “PR flotilla” had been deported.
“Israel will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza,” he added.
The legal center representing the activists said earlier Thursday that most flotilla members were “en route for deportation” from Ramon Airport in southern Israel.
Adalah said the activists had been held at Ktziot prison in the Negev Desert near Gaza.
An Adalah spokesperson said activists from Egypt had been transferred to Taba on Egypt’s border with Israel, while Jordanian activists had been transferred to Aqaba.
The deportations came after far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted footage showing detained activists with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground.
The video, captioned “Welcome to Israel,” showed Ben-Gvir heckling the detained activists and waving an Israeli flag among them.
France’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said a senior Israeli diplomat had been summoned earlier Thursday to express Paris’ anger over the video.
Confavreux said it was too early for now to discuss imposing sanctions on Ben-Gvir, after an earlier call by Italy’s foreign minister for sanctions.
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 said it had summoned Israel’s most senior diplomat in Britain following what it called “the inflammatory video.”
Ben-Gvir was also criticized in Israel by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, as well as by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, made up of around 50 vessels, had sailed from Türkiye last week in the latest attempt by activists to breach the blockade of Gaza.
Adalah legal director Suhad Bishara told AFP Wednesday that lawyers had been able to provide legal counsel to “many” of the hundreds of activists, though some 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.
She added that others said they feared they had broken ribs.
Alessandro Mantovani, an Italian journalist detained with the flotilla activists and deported before the others, said at Rome’s Fiumicino airport Thursday that he and others were “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,’” Mantovani said, describing his treatment by Israeli security forces.
Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, which has been under blockade since 2007.
Since the start of the Gaza war, triggered 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.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
2 min read
1 min read
