Greta Thunberg to be deported from Israel Monday on flight to Athens

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg will be among more than 70 people of different nationalities to leave Israel on Monday after they were seized aboard an intercepted Gaza flotilla.

Most, if not all, those being released from Israeli detention will be flown to Greece, where they will be able to get flights to their home countries, their respective governments said on Sunday.

Those flying out of Israel on Monday include 28 French citizens, 27 Greeks, 15 Italians, and nine Swedes.

Twenty-one Spaniards separately returned to Spain on Sunday from Israel.

The release still leaves several foreigners in Israeli custody, including 28 Spanish nationals.

All had been on board the 42-vessel Global Sumud Flotilla carrying activists and politicians, who had been aiming to break an Israeli blockade on Gaza designed to prevent Hamas from importing weapons. The flotilla activists said they were carrying a symbolic quantity of humanitarian aid for Gaza — where the United Nations says famine has taken hold; a charge that Israel rejects — and refused Israel’s invitation to dock their vessels at an Israeli port, from where the aid would be transferred over land to Gaza.

Israel started intercepting the ships in international waters on Wednesday, detaining the more than 470 people aboard the boats.

The Italian and Greek foreign ministries said their released nationals would on Monday fly from Israel to Athens. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on X that the 15 Italians would have assistance for a subsequent transfer to Italy.

France’s foreign ministry said the 28 French citizens would be flown to Greece. They accounted for most of the 30 French nationals Israel seized aboard the flotilla.

The Swedish foreign ministry did not say where the Swedes would fly to, but Swedish media said they, too, could be put on the flight to Greece.

The plane carrying the deported activists to Greece was to take off from southern Israel’s Ramon Airport and land in Athens.

In total, 170 flotilla activists have been deported so far. Those who remain are being held in Ketziot prison, in what their legal representation has described as substandard conditions.

On Sunday evening, a Spanish activist caused a stir in the prison by biting a medical staff member, prison staff said.

They said she bit the staff member while being escorted from a routine medical examination, as part of preparations for her deportation.

The medical staff member was treated in the prison for minor injuries, and police were called to the scene to handle the activist.

The incident was reported to have delayed the activist’s deportation, as she was taken for questioning and was due to appear before a court on Monday.

Legal aid organization Adalah has reported that the detained activists are being mistreated by the Israeli Prison Service, with some telling the Israeli Arab organization’s lawyers that they were denied food and water, and others reporting that they were manhandled by Israeli law enforcement.

Thunberg told the Swedish Embassy on Saturday that she was suffering from dehydration, having received “insufficient amounts of both water and food.”

The embassy relayed that Greta had said she “had developed rashes, which she suspects were caused by bedbugs. She spoke of harsh treatment and said she had been sitting for long periods on hard surfaces.”

While Israel’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the accusations of mistreatment as “brazen lies,” far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the Israel prison system, said he was proud the activists were being treated like terrorists.

“All the detainees’ legal rights are fully upheld,” wrote the Foreign Ministry on X.

In contrast, Ben Gvir said that he visited Ketziot and “was proud that we are treating the ‘flotilla activists’ as terror supporters, whoever supports terrorism is a terrorist, and deserves the conditions of terrorists.”

The Sumud flotilla, which set sail in late August, marked the latest attempt by activists to challenge Israel’s years-long naval blockade of Gaza.

Similar attempts were intercepted in June and July, amid international anger at Israel over the humanitarian crisis in the Strip. Israeli officials have denounced the Sumud and other missions as pro-Hamas media stunts.

In an August report that Israel has rejected, the UN declared a famine in parts of northern Gaza. Israel, which blocked the entry of aid into Gaza for 11 weeks between March and May, has accused Hamas of systematically looting aid entering the Strip since the war there was sparked when the Palestinian terror group invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.

Meanwhile, a new nine-boat flotilla organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition is also expected to approach Gaza soon and be intercepted by the Israeli Navy. The mission, said to include about 100 activists on one of the boats, set sail from Italy about a week ago and was approaching the coast of Egypt’s Alexandria, its live-tracker showed Saturday.