Israel’s navy intercepted the “Global Flotilla Sumud” (GSF) convoy of 42 vessels in international waters overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, detaining about 470 people from 47 countries and transferring them to Israel pending deportation.
Greece’s foreign ministry said 27 Greek participants will return home on Monday aboard a special flight departing from Eilat in southern Israel. Consular officials have visited the detainees, who are in good health and receiving needed assistance, Athens said.
France’s foreign ministry reported that 28 French nationals will also be deported to Greece on Monday. Paris said all French citizens detained by Israel are well and have access to consular support.
Italy’s deputy premier and foreign minister Antonio Tajani said the same plane to Athens will carry the 15 remaining Italian detainees on Monday. A flight with 26 Italians from the flotilla landed in Rome on Saturday evening.
In Spain, a first group of 21 deported citizens landed in Madrid on Sunday along with several Dutch and Portuguese nationals, the EFE agency reported, adding that 28 Spaniards remain in an Israeli prison.
Israel’s foreign ministry said Saturday that 137 GSF participants had been deported to Turkey. They included citizens of the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Algeria, Mauritania, Malaysia, Bahrain, Morocco, Switzerland, Tunisia and Turkey.
Among the detainees are three Poles: lawmaker Franciszek Sterczewski, Omar Faris of the Polish Palestinian Social-Cultural Association, and Nina Ptak, head of the Nomada Association.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said Sunday that a Polish consul met the detainees and that they should return to Poland in the coming days despite refusing voluntary departure.
Rafał Piotrowski of Global Movement to Gaza Poland told PAP that British national Ewa Jasiewicz, who traveled with the Polish delegation, has already returned to Turkey.
GSF says the flotilla aimed to break what it calls Israel’s illegal naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and deliver humanitarian aid amid a large-scale crisis, including hunger. Israeli authorities have repeatedly accused the flotilla of serving Hamas’s aims and insist the blockade is lawful.
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Source: PAP