Greta Thunberg to Be Deported from Israel Monday

The Italian and Greek foreign ministries said their released nationals would on Monday fly from Israel to Athens. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on X that the 15 Italians would have assistance for a subsequent transfer to Italy.

France’s foreign ministry said the 28 French citizens would be flown to Greece. They accounted for most of the 30 French nationals Israel seized aboard the flotilla.

Legal aid organization Adalah has reported that the detained activists are being mistreated by the Israeli Prison Service, with some telling the Israeli Arab organization’s lawyers that they were denied food and water, and others reporting that they were manhandled by Israeli law enforcement.

Thunberg told the Swedish Embassy on Saturday that she was suffering from dehydration, having received “insufficient amounts of both water and food.”

The embassy relayed that Greta had said she “had developed rashes, which she suspects were caused by bedbugs. She spoke of harsh treatment and said she had been sitting for long periods on hard surfaces.”

While Israel’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the accusations of mistreatment as “brazen lies,” far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the Israel prison system, appeared to take pleasure in the reports, saying he was proud the activists were being treated like terrorists.

“All the detainees’ legal rights are fully upheld,” wrote the Foreign Ministry on X.

In contrast, Ben Gvir said that he visited Ketziot and “was proud that we are treating the ‘flotilla activists’ as terror supporters, whoever supports terrorism is a terrorist, and deserves the conditions of terrorists.”