Israel has released hundreds of activists from the international humanitarian flotilla Sumud, who tried to break the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, and their deportation is underway, a legal organization cooperating with the flotilla announced today.
The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah) said that all the activists were in transit to a civilian airport near the southern Israeli city of Eilat, from where they will be deported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that he had ordered the activists to be deported "as soon as possible."
Netanyahu and other state authorities yesterday criticized Israeli Minister of Public Security Itamar Ben-Gvir for a video in which he mocks detained activists of the international humanitarian flotilla Sumud.
He told them that they should be punished with long prison terms.
The Gaza flotilla, which set off from Spain in April, attempted to break through the Israeli blockade. It was thwarted by the Israeli navy, which arrested 430 activists.
The flotilla's organizers said that activists from more than 40 countries who took part in the mission were "subjected to violent abuse after being illegally abducted in the middle of the sea" as they tried to bypass the blockade.
Formally, the intervention of the Israeli Navy and police in international waters against the flotilla was illegal, contrary to international maritime law.
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