Israel begins deporting Gaza flotilla activists but holds participant with Israeli citizenship

Israel has released hundreds of activists who attempted to breach Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and is in the process of deporting them, according to a legal organization working with the flotilla.

The Israel-based legal advocacy group, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, or Adalah, says that most of the roughly 430 international activists are in transit to a civilian airport near the southernmost city of Eilat for deportation.

It says, however, that a court hearing is currently underway at the Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court for one flotilla participant, Zohar Regev, who holds Israeli citizenship.

Adalah says Regev is being held on “unfounded and contradictory accusations” including “‘illegal entry into Israel,’ ‘unlawful stay,’ and for an attempt to break the blockade on Gaza.”

The legal group says the charges are “absurd” as Regev was “forcefully abducted” in international waters and “brought into Israeli territory entirely against her will.”

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