No Swiss among 171 Gaza flotilla activists expulsed by Israel

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was among those released by Israel on Monday. AP

Israel said on Monday that it had expelled a further 171 activists who took part in the Gaza aid flotilla, including Sweden's Greta Thunberg. The convoy was attempting to break through the Israeli aid blockade of Gaza, but was intercepted as it approached the coast of the Palestinian territory.

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Monday the Israeli foreign ministry wrote on X that “171 additional provocateurs from the flotilla […] including Greta Thunberg, were expelled today from Israel to Greece and Slovakia”. The authorities released photos of Thunberg and two other women at Ramon airport in southern Israel, dressed in the grey tracksuits used in Israeli prisons.

Among those deported were nationals of Greece, Italy, France, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Switzerland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Serbia and the United States, the ministry added.

No Swiss national among expulsed

However, the Swiss foreign ministry denied reports that any Swiss nationals had been expelled. There are still ten Swiss nationals incarcerated in Ktzi’ot prison in southern Israel, the ministry said. “The [ministry] continues to work towards their repatriation,” a spokesperson told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

Nine Swiss participants of the Global Sumud flotilla to Gaza returned to Switzerland on Sunday after being deported by plane. In all, 19 Swiss were among the more than 400 activists aboard 41 ships in the flotilla, which the Israeli navy intercepted off the coast of Gaza late last week.

Claims of breach of prohibited zone

The Global Sumud flotilla set off from Barcelona, Spain, at the beginning of September with the aim of breaking the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip and delivering humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.

According to the organisers and Amnesty International, the flotilla was boarded illegally. Israel, which accuses the flotilla of being an offshoot of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement with which it has been at war for two years, claims on the contrary that the boats violated a prohibited zone and that no humanitarian aid was found on board the ships.

According to the Israeli police, more than 470 people on board the flotilla boats were arrested. The first expulsions began on October 2.

Following the expulsion of Thunberg and her companions, 138 flotilla participants remain in detention in Israel, the Israeli foreign ministry told news agency AFP.

Translated from French with DeepL/gw

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