Pro-Palestinian activists, including Greta Thunberg, have been deported to their “home countries,” Israeli authorities said on Tuesday, after their protest vessel headed for Gaza was seized by the Israeli military.
Passengers who sailed on the Madleen, a vessel operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition carrying a “symbolic” amount of aid toward Gaza, arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement published early local time on Tuesday.
The Israeli government said the protesters would leave the country “within the next few hours,” while those who refused to sign deportation documents would be “brought before a judicial authority.” It is not clear how many activists did not ink deportation documents.
In a later update, Israel’s foreign ministry posted images of the Swedish climate activist onboard what appears to be a commercial aircraft. Thunberg left Tel Aviv on a flight bound for Sweden via France, the Israeli government said.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said 12 activists, one of which was Thunberg, set sail from the Italian port of Catania earlier this month with “urgently needed supplies” to “shift the moral compass of the world.”
The organization said the Madleen was “attacked” and “forcibly intercepted” by the Israeli military in international waters at 3:02 am CET on Monday (9:02 p.m. Sunday ET).
Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said on Monday the Israeli military had carried out a “quick and safe takeover” over the protest vessel, stopping the Madleen from reaching Gaza and “breaking the blockade.” The previous day, Katz said he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “take whatever measures are necessary” to stop the protest flotilla from reaching Gaza.
Israeli blockades of humanitarian aid into Gaza have drawn international condemnation as aid agencies warn of a famine stalking toward the Strip and its more than two million inhabitants.
Israel’s government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, voted to expand the Israeli military’s offensive in Gaza in early May, launching intensive airstrikes and ground operations weeks later. Israel has said it seeks to occupy 75 percent of the Gaza Strip.
More than 20 months of war has torn Gaza apart, often displacing residents multiple times and killing more than 54,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreed in January collapsed in March as Israel enforced a blockade on all humanitarian aid into the strip.
Almost three months later, Israel said it had allowed some aid into Gaza in mid-May for “practical” and “diplomatic” reasons.
Katz said on Monday Thunberg and the other activists aboard the ship had been taken to a room to see a film about the October 7 attacks in 2023.
“When they saw what it was about, they refused to continue watching,” Katz said in a statement carried by Israeli media.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out its unprecedented October 7 attacks in 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 more hostages into the strip.
This is a breaking story. Updates to follow.
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