Thunberg, 3 other flotilla activists booted from Israel; 8 held for refusing deportation

Greta Thunberg and three other pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists were taken to Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday and deported, a day after the Israeli Navy intercepted their vessel, the Madleen, to prevent it from sailing to Gaza.

The Foreign Ministry posted to social media a photo of Thunberg on an El Al flight out to Paris, seated in an aisle seat just in front of the bathrooms.

Eight further activists, reportedly including a member of the European Parliament, were detained after they refused to sign paperwork agreeing to leave the country.

The activists were brought to Israel after IDF forces boarded the protest vessel as it neared Gaza early on Monday, trying to break through a naval blockade of the coastal enclave where there is an ongoing war. The interception followed repeated warnings to the activists against attempting to sail to the Gaza coast.

Soldiers detained the 12 people aboard, including Swedish campaigner Thunberg, and the British-flagged yacht was taken to the port of Ashdod.

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel said in a statement that he issued an order that none of the activists were to be permitted to enter Israel and that they instead be returned to their home countries. Israel “will not permit harm to its sovereignty by way of provocative protest flotillas at its borders,” he said.

“Some of the ‘Selfie Yacht’ passengers are expected to leave within the next few hours,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority, in accordance with Israeli law, to authorize their deportation.”

Consular representatives from the activists’ home countries met them at the airport, the ministry said.

Later, the Foreign Ministry confirmed that Thunberg had left the country and would fly to Sweden via France.

Environmental activist Thunberg has for years avoided taking flights, citing concerns over her carbon footprint.

Greta Thunberg just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden (via France). pic.twitter.com/kWrI9KVoqX

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) June 10, 2025

Adalah, an Israeli organization offering legal support for the country’s Arab minority, said the activists on board the Madleen had requested its services.

In a mid-morning statement, it confirmed that four of the activists had left or were about to leave the country.

“The remaining eight are still detained and will contest their deportation before an Israeli tribunal,” it said.

Adalah spokesperson Moatasem Zedan told the Expressen Swedish-language outlet that lawyers had met with the activists.

“I do more good outside of Israel than if I am forced to stay here for a few weeks,” Thunberg told her lawyers, according to Zedan. “If we choose to stay here against the will of the Israeli authorities and are arrested for a few weeks, it will harm our cause.”

France’s President Emmanuel Macron requested that the six French nationals aboard the boat “be allowed to return to France as soon as possible,” a presidential official said on Monday.

Among those refusing to sign the deportation papers is Rima Hassan, a French lawmaker in the European Parliament, Hebrew media reported.

In February, Hassan was one of two European Union parliament members denied entry to Israel over her support for boycotts against Israel. Hassan had sought to participate in a delegation of EU lawmakers visiting Jerusalem and Ramallah.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Tuesday that one of the French citizens had signed an Israeli deportation form and will return home. He did not name the activist who agreed to leave voluntarily.

The other five French citizens aboard the boat refused to sign, and will appear before a judge in the coming days, said Barrot.

French consular officials contacted relatives of the detainees overnight, after visiting them at the detention center in Ramle, near the airport.

Two of them are journalists, Omar Fayyad of Qatar-based Al Jazeera, and Yanis Mhamdi who works for online publication Blast, according to media rights group Reporters Without Borders, which condemned their detention and called for their “immediate release.”

Al Jazeera “categorically denounces the Israeli incursion,” the network said in a statement, demanding its reporter’s release.

An unnamed lawyer representing one of the activists told the Haaretz outlet Tuesday that the boat was kept at sea for many hours and “sailed in circles.”

The Israelis who boarded the Madleen, the lawyer said, barely spoke to the activists until the yacht reached Ashdod, but were otherwise “polite.”

Thunberg accused Israel of kidnapping her in international waters.

“I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible,” she said in a video that was recorded ahead of the Israeli navy action.

‘Kidnapped and interrogated’

Thunberg repeated the accusation after her deportation flight landed in Paris, telling reporters there that “we were kidnapped in international waters.”

“We were well aware of the risks of this mission,” she said. “The aim was to get to Gaza and to be able to distribute the aid.”

Thunberg described a “quite chaotic and uncertain” situation during her detention, adding that the conditions she and the other activists faced “are absolutely nothing compared to what people are going through in Palestine and especially Gaza right now.”

Asked why she agreed to deportation, she said, “Why would I want to stay in Israeli prison more than necessary?”

Asked whether she was “interrogated” in Israel, she said “Erm,” paused, and said, “Yeah.”

US President Donald Trump, who has long feuded with Thunberg, dismissed the climate activist’s claim of being kidnapped. “I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg,” he said. “She’s a young, angry person… I think she has to go to an anger management class.”

Thunberg laughed off Trump’s criticism, saying: “I think the world needs a lot more young angry women to be honest, especially with everything going on right now.”

Katz plan said foiled by Foreign Ministry, PM’s office

The Haaretz daily also revealed details about Defense Minister Israel Katz’s declared plan to show the activists a film about the October 7, 2023, atrocities in southern Israel during the devastating Hamas-led attack that killed 1,200 people.

Sources familiar with the developments said that Katz wanted to video or photograph the activists as they watched the film, but the Foreign Ministry refused.

The Prime Minister’s Office eventually became involved, and it was decided not to document the screening.

According to a Channel 12 report on Tuesday evening, the Foreign Ministry intervened after Katz announced his plan, fearing that it could create a diplomatic incident and undermine Israel’s largely successful handling of the interception of the Madleen. However, Katz felt it was important to show the hypocrisy and ignorance of the activists regarding what Israel faced on October 7.

In the end, the activists were put in a room, and the film began playing. They were asked if they wanted to continue watching, and they declined. At that stage, the screening was halted, Channel 12 said.

Katz later said the activists refused to watch the film.

The harrowing 43-minute video produced by the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson’s office shows uncensored, difficult-to-watch footage of people being massacred and bodies mutilated during the Hamas-led onslaught, much of it taken from terrorists’ bodycams.

The flotilla came as Israel faces mounting international pressure to allow more aid into Gaza to alleviate widespread shortages of food and basic supplies.

The activist mission organized by the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel Freedom Flotilla Coalition had been carrying a small cargo of humanitarian aid, including rice and baby formula. Its members said they wanted to raise international awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has been devastated by months of war.

Israel dismissed the voyage as a pro-Hamas publicity stunt. “The tiny amount of aid that was on the yacht and not consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the coastal enclave since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, saying it aims to stop weapons from reaching Hamas.

The blockade has remained in place through conflicts, including the war, which began when over 5,000 Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Israel responded with a military offensive to destroy Hamas, topple its regime, and free the hostages.

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.