Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and other activists detained aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship have been taken to Tel Aviv airport for deportation, said Israeli officials. The ship, along with activists, was detained shortly after it entered Israeli waters by the naval forces on Monday. The group of activists had departed from Italy on June 1 aboard the Madleen, carrying food and essential supplies for Gaza, whose entire population the UN has warned is in a critical situation due to shortages of food.
"The passengers of the 'Selfie Yacht' arrived at Ben Gurion Airport to depart from Israel and return to their home countries," the Israeli foreign ministry said on X.
"Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority." The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the activist group operating the vessel, said all 12 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.
Video on Monday showed a group of activists with their hands up as Israeli forces boarded the vessel, with one of them saying nobody was hurt. Turkey and Iran quickly responded to the situation and called the Israeli interception of the Madleen a “heinous attack and a form of piracy” in international waters.
Also read: Israel halts Gaza-bound aid boat, detains Greta Thunberg, others
In May, another freedom flotilla ship, the Conscience, was damaged in international waters off Malta as it headed to Gaza, with the activists saying they suspected an Israeli drone attack. The Madleen was intercepted about 185 kilometres (115 miles) west of the coast of Gaza, according to coordinates from the coalition.
French president Emmanuel Macron urged that the six French nationals aboard the boat “be allowed to return to France as soon as possible," a presidential official said. Israel is currently facing mounting pressure to allow more aid into Gaza to alleviate widespread shortages of food and basic supplies.
In what organisers called a "symbolic act," hundreds of people launched a land convoy on Monday from Tunisia with the aim of reaching Gaza. In Gaza City on Monday, displaced Palestinian Umm Mohammed Abu told reporters that "all nations stand with us and help us, and that we receive 10 boats instead of one."
"We are innocent people," she said. "Our children are dying of hunger... We do not want to lose more children because of hunger." The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 54,880 people, the majority civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war. The UN considers these figures reliable.
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