Israel deports Greta Thunberg and 170 activists from Global Sumud Flotilla to Greece, Slovakia

Israeli authorities say they have deported campaigner Greta Thunberg and another 170 activists from an international flotilla prevented last week from delivering aid to the Gaza Strip, sending them to Greece and Slovakia.

Earlier, Swiss and Spanish activists from the flotilla said they were subjected to inhumane conditions during their detention by Israeli forces.

Monday’s expulsions brought the total number deported to 341, from 479 detained.

Israel’s foreign monistry issued a statement, accompanied by photos of Thunberg at the airport, saying all participants’ legal rights had been upheld and the only violence involved an activist who bit a female medic at Israel’s Ketziot prison.

“171 additional provocateurs from the Hamas–Sumud flotilla, including Greta Thunberg, were deported today from Israel to Greece and Slovakia,” the ministry wrote on X.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson said Thunberg, a Swedish campaigner primarily for climate change, boarded a plane at Ramon International Airport in southern Israel.

Thunberg was among dozens of deportees to land in Athens, Greece, on Monday afternoon.

Crowds of supporters gathered at the Eleftherios Venizelos international airport and chanted “Free free Palestine!” as activists disembarked one by one.

“That this mission has to exist, it’s a shame! It is a shame!” Thunberg told journalists and protesters shortly upon arriving.

“I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment, trust me, but that is not the story,” she added.

Instead, Thunberg urged world leaders and ordinary citizens around the world to end their “complicity” with the “genocide” being carried out against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has dismissed the flotilla as a publicity stunt.

The deportees are citizens of Greece, Italy, France, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Switzerland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Serbia and the United States, the foreign ministry said.

Among nine members of the flotilla who arrived home in Switzerland, some alleged sleep deprivation, lack of water and food as well as some being beaten, kicked and locked in a cage, the group representing them said in a statement.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson rejected the allegations.

Spanish activists also alleged mistreatment on their arrival in Spain late on Sunday after being deported.

“They beat us, dragged us along the ground, blindfolded us, tied our hands and feet, put us in cages and insulted us,” lawyer Rafael Borrego told reporters at Madrid’s airport.

Swedish activists said on Saturday that Thunberg was shoved and forced to wear an Israeli flag during her detention while others said they had clean food and water withheld and had their medication and belongings confiscated.

Israel’s foreign ministry has described widespread reports of detainees being mistreated after the flotilla was intercepted as “complete lies”.

A spokesperson told Reuters over the weekend that all detainees were given access to water, food, and restrooms, adding: “they were not denied access to legal counsel and all their legal rights were fully upheld”.

On Sunday, the Swiss embassy in Tel Aviv visited 10 Swiss citizens and said all were “in relatively good health, given the circumstances”.

Former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, who was also on the flotilla, said there had been “mistreatment but that was nothing compared to what the Palestinian people suffer every day”.

Spanish journalists Carlos de Barron and Nestor Prieto said Israeli authorities signed a statement on the deported activists’ behalf claiming they had entered Israel illegally.

“They placed documents in Hebrew in front of us, denying us the right to a translator, and we did not receive consular assistance because they did not allow the (Spanish) consul to enter the port of Ashdod,” Mr Prieto said.

Consular staff have visited activists at the prison, according to statements from several countries whose citizens were detained.

with AP