Israel begins deporting Gaza aid flotilla activists amid global outcry

Israel’s treatment of the hundreds of abductees has been condemned by several countries, including key allies. Israel says it has deported all the foreign activists abducted by Israeli forces who stormed a Gaza aid flotilla earlier this week, following global outcry over their treatment in custody. “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,” Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said on Thursday. Earlier, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Adalah, told Al Jazeera that most of the roughly 430 abducted activists were being transported to Ramon Airport in southern Israel, from where they would be deported. The rest will be deported from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. On Tuesday evening, Israeli forces finished intercepting the last of the more than 50 boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla as they were sailing towards Gaza in international waters. The abductions were widely condemned, with the foreign ministers of 10 countries, including Spain, Brazil and India, slamming Israeli forces’ actions as “blatant violations of international law and international humanitarian law”. Israel’s treatment of the activists has since been condemned by more countries, including several key allies. The criticism comes after far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video on X on Wednesday of him taunting activists who were kneeling on the floor with their hands tied behind their backs. In response, several nations, including France, Canada, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their capitals to express their outrage. Meanwhile, European Council President Antonio Costa said he was “appalled” by Ben-Gvir’s behaviour, calling it “completely unacceptable”. Italy has demanded an apology from Israel. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani contacted European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, requesting that sanctions against Ben-Gvir be discussed at the bloc’s next meeting of foreign ministers. Ben-Gvir’s behaviour prompted a rare rebuke from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Israel has every right to prevent provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters from entering our territorial waters and reaching Gaza. However, the way that Minister Ben-Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel’s values and norms,” said Netanyahu. “It really goes to show how much Israeli authorities wanted to make a show out of [this] and how it’s very much an extension of the Israeli treatment towards Palestinians, which obviously gets a lot less of a public outcry,” Miriam Azem, the international advocacy coordinator at Adalah, told Al Jazeera. On Thursday, the French Foreign Ministry said Israeli authorities are currently deporting 37 French nationals who were part of the group to Turkiye. Earlier, Turkiye announced it was sending chartered flights to Israel to repatriate some of its citizens and those of third countries, including Spanish nationals. Jordan has confirmed that two of its nationals have returned home via the southern crossing with Israel. Reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said the ongoing deportations were the fastest Israel has ever carried out, as it scrambles to contain the public relations damage caused by Ben-Gvir’s video. Ibrahim added that many Palestinians believe the incident has gained more international attention because those mistreated were from foreign countries. Among those detained was an Israeli citizen, Zohar Regev, who attended a court hearing in Ashkelon on Thursday after she was accused of illegally entering Israel. “This shows you the level of Israeli anger, the level of Israeli frustration at these continued flotillas that will disrupt Israel’s image,” Ibrahim reported.