Tel Aviv: Israeli authorities deported Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, a day after she and 11 other activists were detained by Israeli forces while attempting to breach the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip aboard an aid boat.
“Greta Thunberg just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden (via France),” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on social media platform X. The ministry released two photos of her, one boarding the plane with her hands behind her back and another seated inside.
State broadcaster Kan reported that Thunberg, 22, and other activists were taken to Ben Gurion Airport for deportation.
According to the report, Thunberg was seated “in a back seat without the ability to recline.”
Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel confirmed several activists were taken to the airport for deportation, and said he had “instructed that all 12 participants in the flotilla be returned to their countries of origin.”
“Israel will not allow its sovereignty to be harmed through protest flotilla provocations at its borders,” Arbel said in a statement.
The Foreign Ministry said activists who agreed to sign documents stating they voluntarily agree to leave Israel were expected to leave the country by flights on Tuesday.
Those who refused would be brought before a judicial authority to authorise their deportation, according to the ministry. Consular officials from the activists’ home countries met them at the airport, the ministry said.
Adalah, an Israel-based legal rights group representing the activists, said four agreed to immediate repatriation, while the remaining eight are contesting their deportation orders.
They would be held in a detention center pending a court hearing. The timing of the hearing was not immediately clear.
The Israeli Navy had boarded the Madleen on Monday, after the vessel carrying the activists refused to turn back, and was taken to the Ashod port after nightfall.
The Foreign Minister ridiculed the Thunberg and the activists, calling the Madleen a “selfie yacht”, noting that the vessel for all its claims of delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip had few bags of grain, and was instead just a publicity stunt.
Israel has imposed a strict naval blockade at the Gaza Strip since 2007, ever since the Hamas terror group came to power there.
After the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023, Tel Aviv has significantly tightened its blockade to prevent any possible Iranian foothold.
UNI/XINHUA
