Israel deports all foreign activists from Gaza flotilla

Israel said on Thursday (May 21, 2026) it had deported all the foreign activists seized by Israeli forces from a Gaza-bound flotilla, following global outcry over their treatment in custody.

Around 430 activists from countries around the world had been placed in detention in Israel after they were intercepted at sea on Monday (May 18, 2026) while making the latest in a string of attempts to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked widespread condemnation and diplomatic backlash on Wednesday (May 20, 2026) by posting a video showing the detained activists with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Oren Marmorstein, said on Thursday (May 21, 2026) “Israel will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza,” he added.

The legal centre representing the flotilla members said earlier on Thursday (May 21, 2026) that the majority were “en route for deportation” from Ramon Airport in Israel’s far south.

Adalah said that the activists had been held at Israel’s Ktziot prison, in the Negev Desert near Gaza.

Türkiye had announced it was sending charter flights to Israel to repatriate Turkish citizens and participants from third countries.

Turkish Foreign Ministry sources later confirmed that “a total of 422 flotilla participants, 85 of whom are our citizens, are being brought to our country on special charter flights.”

A spokesman for Adalah said activists from Egypt had been transferred to Taba at Egypt’s border with Israel, while those from Jordan had been transferred to Aqaba.

‘They kicked us’

Adalah’s legal director Suhad Bishara told AFP on Wednesday (May 20, 2026) that the group’s lawyers had been able to give legal counsel to “many” of the hundreds of activists, though she added that others had faced court hearings without legal assistance.

“We know of at least two participants who were hospitalised… both of them were shot by rubber bullets,” Bishara said, adding that others said they feared they had broken ribs.

Alessandro Mantovani, an Italian journalist detained with the flotilla activists and deported before the others, told reporters at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on Thursday (May 21, 2026) that he and others had been “taken to Ben Gurion airport in handcuffs and with chains on our feet and put on a flight to Athens”.

“They beat us up. They kicked us and punched us and shouted ‘Welcome to Israel’,” he said of his treatment by Israeli security forces.

Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, under blockade since 2007.