Israeli authorities have announced that they have deported Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and about 170 other foreign participants from the international flotilla, which was stopped last week to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The detained activists have been returned on flights to Greece and Slovakia, the Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed. Among the deportees is detained Bulgarian citizen Vasil Dimitrov, reports "Reuters".
According to official data, the total number of deportees since the start of the operation has reached 341 people out of a total of 479 detainees. They include citizens 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.
Israel published photos of Thunberg at Ramon Airport in the Negev Desert and said that all the activists' legal rights had been respected. The only incident of violence, according to Israeli authorities, was when "an activist bit a female medic" in Keziot prison.
However, deported activists from Switzerland and Spain said that they were subjected to humiliation and ill-treatment during their detention - including lack of water, food and sleep, beatings and being locked in cages. Spanish lawyer Rafael Borrego said upon his arrival in Madrid: "They beat us, dragged us on the ground, tied our hands and feet and kept us in cages."
Swedish participants claim that Thunberg was pushed and forced to carry an Israeli flag, while others had their medicines and personal belongings taken away.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has categorically denied all the allegations, calling them "a complete lie". A spokesman for the ministry told Reuters that the detainees had access to water, food, sanitary facilities and legal assistance.
The Swiss embassy in Tel Aviv confirmed that it had visited 10 of its citizens and that all were "in relatively good health, given the circumstances."
Former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, also part of the flotilla, said: "There was rough treatment, but it is nothing compared to the suffering that Palestinians endure every day."
Israel has described the flotilla as a "public relations stunt," while activists insist its aim was to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in besieged Gaza.