Jerusalem [Israel], October 5: Israeli has deported more foreign activists from the Gaza aid flotilla that was intercepted by the country's navy earlier this week.
"137 more provocateurs of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla were deported today to Turkiye," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a post on X on Saturday.
The deportees are citizens of the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Algeria, Mauritania, Malaysia, Bahrain, Morocco, Switzerland, Tunisia, and Turkiye.
"These individuals, who arrived under the guise of 'humanitarian aid,' made it clear - through their actions, their rejection of all proposals by Israel, Italy, and Greece to peacefully transfer the aid, and the small quantity of aid they actually carried on their boats - that their true goal was provocation in the service of Hamas, not humanitarian assistance," the ministry claimed.
It added that Israel wants to "expedite the deportation of all provocateurs," noting that "some of them are deliberately obstructing the legal deportation process, preferring instead to linger in Israel."
According to the Turkish Foreign Minister, a plane carrying the activists has already landed in Istanbul.
Bilateral relations between Turkiye and Israel have deteriorated drastically since the start of the Gaza war following the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.
On Friday, the Israeli Navy intercepted the last of the 42 boats of the Global Sumud
Flotilla.
More than 400 crew members from dozens of countries were taken into custody, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
The activists said they wanted to bring aid supplies to the Gaza Strip. Israel had offered to bring the aid supplies ashore via harbours outside the Gaza Strip and from there to the Palestinian coastal area.
Source: Qatar Tribune
