Greta Thunberg deported from Israel after military intercepts Gaza-bound aid boat
Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel on Tuesday, the country's foreign ministry said, the day after she and other activists were detained while trying to deliver a symbolic shipment of aid to Gaza by sea.
In a post on X, the Israeli foreign ministry said that Thunberg, 22, had 'just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden' via France, and shared images her sitting on a plane.
That came after the ministry said in a statement that a number of people detained by Israel aboard the intercepted British-flagged yacht Madleen had arrived at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport to 'return to their home countries.'
Thunberg was among 12 activists undertaking the journey to attempt to circumvent Israel's aid blockade of Gaza when they were stopped by the Israeli navy and brought ashore at the port of Ashdod.
The foreign ministry statement added that those activists who refused to sign deportation papers and leave Israel would be brought before a judicial authority 'to authorize their deportation.'
Adalah, the legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel, said in a statement Monday that it had met with 11 of the 12 people detained following the Madleen's interception before some of them, who consented to deportation, flew out of Tel Aviv.
It said at least four people had been deported or were being deported from Israel, while eight remained in detention at Givon Prison in Ramla and planned to contest their deportation before an Israeli tribunal. They were expected to appear before the Immigration Detention Review Tribunal on Tuesday morning.
The Madleen, dubbed the 'Freedom Flotilla' by activists, departed Sicily earlier this month in a bid to break Israel's naval blockade which has been in place since 2007, when Hamas rose to power in the Gaza Strip, and deliver aid to Palestinians.
The vessel departed as Israel allowed a trickle of aid into Gaza after lifting a widely-condemned blockade that had barred the entry of food, medicine and other vital supplies for more than two months.
In a post on X, an account run by Israel's foreign affairs ministry said that more than 1,200 aid trucks had entered Gaza from Israel 'within the past two weeks,' with just over 10 million meals distributed from aid sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the group tasked with distributing food in the enclave under a controversial new system.
Gaza has a population of around 2.1 million people, so those meals over the course of two weeks would equate to roughly a third of a meal per day for each member of the population.
Before the war, more than 500 trucks had been entering Gaza daily, according to the British Red Cross and other humanitarian groups.
Thunberg, a climate activist, said the mission was essential amid global silence on Israel's actions in Gaza.
The Madleen was also carrying Thiago Ávila, a Brazilian activist and politician; Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament; and Baptiste André, a French doctor who traveled with the group to assist passengers injured in any potential confrontations with Israeli forces.
Adalah said Ávila and Hassan were among the eight people still detained, with André among those deported.
The yacht was intercepted Monday, with video posted by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition showing the activists onboard raising their hands as lights flashed from boats surrounding the vessel.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to 'screen the October 7 massacre video to the flotilla passengers upon their arrival at Ashdod Port.'
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage in a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
Since then, more than 54,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.
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