In the wake of a controversial Israeli interception of a humanitarian flotilla bound for blockaded Gaza, Israel confirmed Thursday it has finished deporting all detained foreign activists, with the first planeload of detainees touching down in Turkey to a warm welcome from supporters.
The interception, which took place Monday in international waters, marked the latest activist effort to breach a 17-year Israeli blockade on Gaza that has tightened dramatically into a full-blown humanitarian crisis since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023. Hundreds of participants from dozens of nations were taken into Israeli custody after the boarding operation, sparking global outrage over how detainees were treated.
According to Turkish foreign ministry officials, 422 activists — including 85 Turkish citizens — were transported from southern Israel’s Ramon Airport to Istanbul aboard three planes chartered by the Turkish government. An AFP correspondent on the ground at Istanbul Airport reported that the first group of arriving activists exited the airport’s VIP terminal to cheers from a crowd of hundreds of supporters waving Palestinian flags. One activist addressed the gathering, defiantly stating: “We’ve been tortured, we’ve been beaten, we’ve been arrested in international waters, but we won’t give up. We will return. Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.”
The international backlash was triggered earlier this week when far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted a widely condemned video showing detained activists with their hands bound and foreheads pressed to the ground, while Ben Gvir walked among them heckling detainees and waving an Israeli flag, with the caption “Welcome to Israel.” The footage drew condemnation from world capitals across Europe, North America and Oceania, and even drew criticism from within Israel’s own government: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar publicly distanced themselves from Ben Gvir’s actions, as did U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
Multiple European governments have called for formal action against Israel and Ben Gvir over the incident. Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez labeled the treatment of activists “unacceptable” and called on the European Union to impose sanctions on Ben Gvir. A leaked letter from Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin revealed he is pushing EU leaders to take sweeping measures against Israel, including a ban on goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and a partial or full suspension of the EU’s association agreement with Israel. The United Kingdom also summoned Israel’s top diplomat in London to protest what officials called the “inflammatory video.”
Legal representatives for the flotilla participants have confirmed multiple reports of abuse and mistreatment in custody. Adalah, the Israeli legal center representing detainees, reported that most activists were held at Israel’s high-security Ktziot Prison in the Negev Desert near the Gaza border, before being processed for deportation. Adalah legal director Suhad Bishara told AFP that many detainees received access to legal counsel, but others were forced to attend court hearings without legal representation. Bishara also confirmed that at least two activists were hospitalized after being hit with rubber bullets, and many other detainees reported injuries including suspected broken ribs from beatings by Israeli security forces.
Alessandro Mantovani, an Italian journalist who was detained alongside the activists and deported earlier than the main group, described his mistreatment to reporters in Italy Thursday. “We were taken to Ben Gurion airport in handcuffs and with chains on our feet and put on a flight to Athens,” he said, adding: “They beat us up. They kicked us and punched us and shouted ‘Welcome to Israel’.”
Activists from neighboring countries were deported over land: Egyptian detainees were transferred to the Israeli-Egyptian border crossing at Taba, while Jordanian participants were sent to the Israeli-Jordanian crossing at Aqaba.
The latest flotilla, organized under the banner Global Sumud Flotilla, involved around 50 vessels that departed from Turkey last week, marking the second major activist attempt to break the blockade in as many months. Israel has maintained a full naval and land blockade on Gaza since 2007, when Hamas took control of the territory. Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the current war, the blockade has cut off almost all access to essential goods, leaving Gaza’s 2.2 million residents facing catastrophic shortages of food, clean water, medicine and fuel, with aid groups warning of widespread famine and a total collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system. Israeli officials have reiterated that they will not allow any violations of their blockade, with foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein stating Thursday: “Israel will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza.”