Israel deports Gaza aid flotilla activists

Israel said on Thursday it deported all the foreign activists it seized from a Gaza-bound flotilla after a global outcry over their treatment in custody that led several countries to summon Israeli diplomats for a formal dressing down.

The activists were put on planes and landed in Istanbul on Thursday evening, reportedly flashing two-fingered salutes and chanting “Free Palestine” as they descended stairs to the runway on arrival, with some appearing to be limping.

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.

Turkish foreign ministry sources said 422 activists, including 85 Turkish nationals, were flown from southern Israel on three planes chartered by Ankara.

Those deportation flights were confirmed by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which said several other activists had been deported to their home countries directly.

A first group of arrivals were seen inside the VIP terminal at Istanbul airport, as a crowd of supporters carrying Palestinian flags gathered to welcome them, an AFP correspondent reported.

Israeli forces “attacked us. Each of us was beaten, women and men... It’s what Palestinians experience all the time,” said Turkish national Bulal Kitay, after he got off the plane.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked widespread condemnation and a diplomatic backlash 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 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.

Upon arrival at Istanbul airport, one of the activists shouted “the Palestinian people are not alone!” as he emerged from the terminal.

“We’ve been tortured, we’ve been beaten, we’ve been arrested in international waters, but we won’t give up. We will return. Palestine will be free from the river to the sea,” he said to cheers from the crowd.

Adalah, the legal center representing the flotilla members, said earlier on Thursday that the majority were “en route for deportation” from Ramon Airport in Israel’s far south.

It said they had been held at Israel’s Ktziot prison, in the Negev Desert near Gaza.

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.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said that two South Korean nationals had also been sent back to their home country and an Israeli citizen had been released in Israel.

Around 50 vessels under the Global Sumud Flotilla set sail from Turkey 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 came 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.

Italy and Spain have called on the European Union to sanction Ben Gvir, with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calling the treatment of the activists “unacceptable.”

In Ireland, a leaked letter revealed Prime Minister Micheal Martin urging the EU chief for “further action” against Israel over their treatment, including a ban on settlement goods and suspension “of parts if not all” of the EU’s Association Agreement with Israel.

The United Kingdom announced it had summoned Israel’s most senior diplomat in Britain following “the inflammatory video.”

Adalah’s legal director Suhad Bishara told AFP on Wednesday that the group’s lawyers had given legal counsel to “many” of the activists, though she added others had faced court hearings without legal assistance.

“We know of at least two participants who were hospitalized... 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 in Italy on 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’,” he said of his treatment by Israeli security forces.