Israel said on Thursday it had deported all the foreign activists seized by Israeli forces from a Gaza-bound flotilla, following global outcry over their treatment in custody.
Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman, Oren Marmorstein, said that “all foreign activists from the PR flotilla have been deported from Israel”.
“Israel will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza,” he added.
Earlier, the legal centre and rights groups representing the activists, Adalah, said all detained activists from the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla and Freedom Flotilla Coalition had been released from Israel’s Ktziot prison ahead of deportation.
Saad Edhi, son of prominent social worker Faisal Edhi and grandson of late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi, was reportedly also among the detained activists.
Adalah said it had received “official confirmation” from the Israeli Prison Service and state officials that the detainees had been released.
“The majority of the participants are being transferred to Ramon Airport to be flown out of the country,” the group said.
One of the organisers of the Freedom Flotilla mission, Thiago Avila, in a post on X, said, “Zohar, one of our participants of the last flotilla mission, is free,” adding that the “others” were expected to arrive in Istanbul by 18pm [sic]”.
“The world mobilisation is working! Keep talking about Gaza and showing solidarity with Palestine,” he added.
More than 430 activists from countries around the world were taken in custody in Israel after they were detained at sea while making the latest in a string of attempts to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked condemnation on Wednesday by posting a video showing the detained activists with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground.
Captioned “Welcome to Israel”, the footage showed Ben Gvir heckling and waving an Israeli flag among the detained activists.
On Thursday, Adalah said the flotilla members were “en route for deportation” from Ramon Airport in Israel’s far south after their release.
“The majority of the participants are being transferred to Ramon Airport to be flown out of the country,” Adalah said.
Around 50 vessels under the Global Sumud Flotilla set sail from Turkey last week in the latest attempt by activists to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza, after Israeli forces intercepted a previous convoy last month.
‘They kicked us’
Adalah said one of the flotilla participants who holds Israeli citizenship had a court hearing Thursday, and faced “absurd” charges.
“Israeli authorities are holding her under unfounded and contradictory accusations of ‘illegal entry into Israel’, ‘unlawful stay’, and for an attempt to break the blockade on Gaza,” Adalah said.
Adalah’s legal director, Suhad Bishara, told AFP on Wednesday that the group’s lawyers had been able to give legal counsel to “many” of the hundreds of activists, though she added that others had faced court hearings without legal assistance.
“We know of at least two participants who were hospitalised… both of them were shot by rubber bullets,” Bishara said, adding that others said they feared they had broken ribs.
Alessandro Mantovani, an Italian journalist detained with the flotilla activists and deported before the others, told reporters upon landing in Rome’s Fiumicino airport on Thursday that he and others had been “taken to Ben Gurion airport in handcuffs and with chains on our feet and put on a flight to Athens”.
“They beat us up. They kicked us and punched us and shouted ‘Welcome to Israel’,” he said of his treatment by Israeli security forces.
Dario Carotenuto, an Italian MP who was also detained and deported, said: “It was really tough… They called us by number… with rifles pointed at us… I think those were the longest seconds in my life.”
A statement by the Foreign Office (FO) in Islamabad earlier in the day said that those detained also reportedly included humanitarian activist Saad Edhi.
The FO also condemned Israel’s unlawful interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters as well as the arbitrary detention and reported mistreatment of humanitarian workers.
The video posted by Ben Gvir sparked resounding condemnation by other governments as well, including those of Italy, Spain, Australia and Canada.
He was also criticised at home by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, as well as by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who denounced what he called “despicable actions”.
Francesca Albanese, an outspoken UN expert on the Palestinian territories, called on Italy, where she is from, to take action.
“Words do not suffice: let Italy stop opposing the suspension” of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, she wrote on X.
Earlier this week, Pakistan and nine other countries issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s interception of the flotilla. The joint statement was issued by the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Turkiye, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Jordan, Libya, Maldives, and Spain.
Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, under blockade since 2007.
During the Gaza conflict, sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the territory has suffered severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential supplies, with Israel at times halting aid deliveries entirely.
A previous flotilla attempt was intercepted last month in international waters off Greece, with most activists expelled to Europe.
Similarly, Israel’s military had halted a flotilla assembled by the same organisation in October last year as well. Israel had also arrested Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and more than 450 participants back then.
Former senator Mushtaq’s letter
Both times, former Pakistani senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan was also among the flotilla participants who had been detained by the Israeli military and later released.
Shortly before the activists’ release on Thursday, he shared a letter from his party, the Pakistani Rights Movement, to President Asif Ali Zardari, calling for measures to secure Saad Edhi’s release. In his post, he said that the letter was also addressed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.
The letter stated: “I am writing to you with a sense of profound urgency and grave concern regarding the unlawful abduction and detention of Mr Saad Edhi by Israeli forces.”
It added that the Edhi family represented the “very identity, soul, and moral compass of Pakistan. Their decades of unparalleled, selfless service to humanity are not normal accomplishments. They are monumental, historic, and recognised globally”.
Saad Edhi was leading a humanitarian flotilla to deliver life-saving aid to the besieged people of Gaza when his vessel was intercepted, and he was “illegally kidnapped” by Israeli forces, the letter said, adding that he was “currently being held in an Israeli prison in occupied Palestine”.
Senator Khan urged for the initiation of “immediate, emergency diplomatic channels” through the United Nations, friendly states, and international humanitarian organisations to secure the safe and unconditional release of Saad Edhi.
Moreover, “the government of Pakistan must regularly update the Edhi family and the citizens of Pakistan regarding the specific, concrete steps being taken for his recovery. The nation deserves to know that its government stands firmly behind its heroes”.
He also called for formally raising this issue at all international forums to condemn this “illegal detention of a humanitarian worker”.
“I look forward to your prompt action on this matter of national dignity,” he stated, concluding the letter.
