“Greta Thunberg and other pro-Palestinian activists have been taken to Tel Aviv airport ahead of their deportation,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry stated on Tuesday (June 10, 2025), after the Israeli navy prevented them from crusing to Gaza.
Israeli forces boarded the charity vessel because it neared Gaza early on Monday (June 9, 2025), attempting to break via a years-old naval blockade of the coastal enclave, and seized the 12-strong crew, together with Swedish campaigner Thunberg.
The British-flagged yacht was taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod and the Foreign Ministry stated the activists had been transferred in a single day to Ben Gurion airport.
“Some of the ‘Selfie Yacht’ passengers are expected to leave within the next few hours,” the Ministry stated in a press release. “Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority, in accordance with Israeli law, to authorise their deportation.” “Consular representatives from the passengers’ home countries met them at the airport,” it added.
The activists had been carrying a small cargo of humanitarian help, together with rice and child components, and stated they wished to elevate worldwide consciousness concerning the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, which has been devastated by months of battle.
Israel dismissed the voyage as a pro-Hamas publicity stunt. “The tiny amount of aid that was on the yacht and not consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels,” the Foreign Ministry stated.
Ms. Thunberg accused Israel of kidnapping her in worldwide waters. “I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible,” she stated in a video that was recorded forward of the Israeli navy motion.
U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed Greta Thunberg’s declare of being kidnapped. “I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg,” he stated. “She’s a young, angry person … I think she has to go to an anger management class.”
Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the coastal enclave since Hamas took management of Gaza in 2007, saying it goals to cease weapons from reaching Hamas.
The blockade has remained in place via conflicts together with the battle, which started when Hamas-led militants rampaged via southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing greater than 1,200 folks and taking 251 hostages, by Israeli tallies.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in opposition to Hamas has since killed greater than 54,000 Palestinians, in accordance to well being officers in Hamas-run Gaza, and destroyed a lot of the houses of its 2.3 million residents.
Published – June 10, 2025 01:03 pm IST
