Greta Thunberg among flotilla activists deported from Israel

Israeli authorities said they have deported to Greece and Slovakia another 171 people detained for taking part in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, including prominent Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Israel’s foreign ministry posted on X that “the deportees were citizens of Greece, Italy, France, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Switzerland, Norway, the UK, Serbia, and the United States”.

The post included photos of Ms Thunberg and other activists.

Ms Thunberg was among dozens of deportees to land in Athens on Monday afternoon. Crowds of supporters gathered at an 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!” Ms 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.”

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

“This action was challenging our extremely violent business as usual,” Ms Thunberg said. “We cannot take our eyes away from Gaza.”

Israeli authorities rejected once again mistreatment accusations that have emerged in interviews with activists who were deported to Turkey, Spain and Italy over the weekend.

Lubna Tuma, a lawyer with the Adalah association representing more than 470 Global Sumud Flotilla participants who were detained last week as they attempted to break the Israeli siege of the Gaza strip, said that 150 people were still being held in Israel’s Ktziot prison. Forty of them were on hunger strike.

“Some stated that they prefer that their food go to the people in Gaza,” Ms Tuma said during a live briefing on Monday that was broadcast on Adalah’s and the flotilla’s Instagram accounts. Others were also refusing to drink water “until medical treatment is given to all detainees”, she said.

Though Adalah lawyers have seen most of the activists by now — but not all — Ms Tuma said that Israeli authorities have repeatedly violated activists’ rights, starting with their interception in international waters, transfer to Israel and subsequent transfer to a maximum security prison where Ms Tuma said detainees were subject to physical violence and humiliation.

Israeli authorities have strongly rejected the claims, reiterating that the activists’ rights had been respected throughout their detention. Israel’s foreign ministry instead accused one activist of biting a female medical staff member.

The interception of the flotilla led to large-scale demonstrations in cities across the world and large gatherings at airports to welcome deportees.

Several activists who were freed in the last two days have given testimonies alleging mistreatment by Israeli authorities.

“There was some dehumanising and violence and shouting,” Roos Ykema, a Dutch member of the flotilla who was deported to Madrid on Sunday, told the Associated Press. “But we got the European treatment,” she added.

Her comments were echoed by former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, who returned to the Spanish city late Sunday.

“We were detained in a maximum security prison where there was no rule of law, they didn’t respect any of our rights,” Ms Colau told journalists upon landing. “But we know this is nothing compared to what the Palestinian people are suffering every day in Gaza.”