Israel deported after detaining 137 people involved in a shipping convoy (Floral) carrying relief material for Gaza. All of them reached Türkiye on Saturday. Of these, two activists claimed that the Swedish climate activist Gita Thangberg was abused during custody.
According to the report by news agency Reuters, Israel did not immediately comment on these new allegations, but before that its Foreign Ministry had described the news of misconduct with those detained as ‘completely lies’.
Citizens from many countries involved
According to Turkish Foreign Ministry sources, these workers, who arrived at Istanbul Airport, were 36 Turkish citizens, besides the US, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Morocco, Italy, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Switzerland, Tunisia and Jordan.
Thanks of misconduct with Thangberg
Malaysia citizen Hazwani Helmi and American citizen Vinfield Beaver told Reuters at Istanbul Airport that they saw Thangberg misbehaving. He said that he was pushed and forcibly dressed in Israel. Helmi (28) said, ‘This was a terrible experience. We were treated like animals. We were not given clean water or food, medicines and our goods were also confiscated.
Beaver said that Thangberg was ‘treated very badly’ and ‘he was used for propaganda’. He said that when Israeli’s security minister Itamar Ben-Governor reached there, Thangberg was forcefully pushed into a room.
What did Italy’s Foreign Minister say?
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that 26 Italian citizens have arrived in Turkey by Turkish Airlines flight, while 15 others are still in Israel and will be expelled in the coming days. Tajani wrote on X, ‘I have instructed the Italy Embassy in Tel Aviv to treat our remaining citizens respecting their rights.’
Accused of forcibly raising slogans of ‘free Palestine’
Earlier on Friday, people of the first batch, including four Italian MPs, returned to Rome. One of them MP Arturo Scotto said, “We were working legally, and we were doing illegal work to prevent us from reaching Gaza.” Another MP Benedetta Skuderi said, “We were brutally stopped … we were taken hostage.”
The Israeli organization Adalah, who is giving legal help to these activists, said that some detained people were denied access to lawyers, water, medicines and toilets. According to the institution, some people were ‘tied hands for at least five hours and sat on their knees,’ until they raised slogans of ‘Free Palestine’.
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