JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Greta Thunberg and other pro-Palestinian activists have been taken to Tel Aviv airport ahead of their deportation, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, after the Israeli navy prevented them from sailing to Gaza.
Israeli forces boarded the charity vessel as it neared Gaza early on Monday, trying to break through a years-old naval blockade of the coastal enclave, and seized the 12-strong crew, including Swedish campaigner Thunberg.
The British-flagged yacht was taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod and the foreign ministry said the activists were transferred overnight to Ben Gurion airport.
“Some of the ‘Selfie Yacht’ passengers are expected to leave within the next few hours,” the ministry said in a statement. “Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority, in accordance with Israeli law, to authorize their deportation.”
Consular representatives from the passengers’ home countries met them at the airport, it added.
The activists had been carrying a small cargo of humanitarian aid, including rice and baby formula, and said they wanted to raise international awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has been devastated by months of war.
Israel dismissed the voyage as a pro-Hamas publicity stunt. “The tiny amount of aid that was on the yacht and not consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Thunberg accused Israel of kidnapping her in international waters. “I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible,” she said in a video that was recorded ahead of the Israeli navy action.
U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed Thunberg’s claim of being kidnapped. “I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg,” he said. “She’s a young, angry person … I think she has to go to an anger management class.”
Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the coastal enclave since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, saying it aims to stop weapons from reaching Hamas.
The blockade has remained in place through conflicts including the war, which began when Hamas-led militants rampaged through southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, by Israeli tallies.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has since killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza, and destroyed most of the homes of its 2.3 million residents.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Comments