Greta Thunberg returns to Sweden, blasts Israel for 'war crimes'
STOCKHOLM: Activist Greta Thunberg returned home to Sweden late Tuesday after being deported from Israel, lambasting the country for its "violations of international law and war crimes" in Gaza.
Thunberg was deported after Israeli security forces intercepted a boat carrying her and 11 other activists attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and break the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory.
The 22-year-old was greeted by around 30 cheering supporters waving Palestinian flags amid a large media presence at Stockholm's Arlanda airport, after landing just after 10.30pm (2030 GMT), an AFP journalist reported.
Earlier Tuesday during a stopover in Paris, Thunberg accused Israel of "kidnapping" her and the other activists.
Asked in Stockholm if she was scared when the security forces boarded the Madleen sailboat, Thunberg replied: "What I'm afraid of is that people are silent during an ongoing genocide."
"What I feel most is concern for the continued violations of international law and war crimes that Israel is guilty of," Thunberg told reporters.
She accused Israel of carrying out a "systematic genocide" and "systematic starvation of over two million people" in Gaza.
Several rights groups including Amnesty International have accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza but Israel vehemently rejects the term.
"We must act, we must demand that our government acts, and we must act ourselves when our complicit governments do not step up," Thunberg said.
She rose to fame as a schoolgirl activist against climate change and seeks to avoid flying because of its environmental impact, going so far as to cross the Atlantic by sailboat twice.
She appeared confused about reporters' questions about how it felt to travel by plane, replying, "Why are you asking about that?"
Of the 12 people on board the Madleen carrying food and supplies for Gaza, eight were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily.
Four others, including Thunberg, were deported.
All of them have been banned from Israel for 100 years, according to the rights group that legally represents some of them.
The Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 54,981 people, the majority civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war. The UN considers these figures reliable.
Out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.--AFP
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