The Israeli Foreign Ministry on Tuesday deported the environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg and another activist who had been detained aboard an aid boat bound for Gaza.
Ms. Thunberg and another passenger were flown out of Ben-Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, and two more activists were expected to be sent home later on Tuesday, according to Israeli officials.
Eight other passengers from the vessel, the Madleen, refused to sign deportation documents and were brought before an Israeli immigration tribunal on Tuesday, according to Adalah, an Israeli human rights group and legal center whose lawyers were representing them.
The hearings were held over five hours, the group said in a statement. By Tuesday night, the tribunal had yet to decide whether the eight activists should remain in detention pending their deportation.
Adalah’s lawyers argued that Israel had no lawful authority to detain or deport the activists since they had been in international waters and were transferred to Israel against their will.
“The activists must be released immediately, allowed to re-board their ship, deliver aid to Gaza and return to their countries of origin,” the group said in a statement.
Israeli forces intercepted the boat, operated by a pro-Palestinian activist group called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, on Monday. The passengers included Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament. In February, she was blocked from entering Israel for promoting boycotts of the country.
At a news conference, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, described the vessel’s voyage as a public relations stunt. He said it was Israel’s intention to deliver to Gaza “the tiny amount of aid on the yacht” the activists on board had not consumed.
The campaigners had said that the boat was transporting urgently needed goods, including baby formula, food and medical supplies, and that they planned to breach Israel’s longstanding naval blockade of Gaza.
Ms. Thunberg has been an outspoken opponent of Israel’s blockade on the enclave and its conduct of the war in Gaza. In March, Israel barred the entry of food and other aid into Gaza; the blockade was eased last month. Hunger is now widespread in the territory, according to international aid organizations, and a new Israeli-backed food distribution system has been marred by chaos and fatal shootings.
“We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying,” Ms. Thunberg said last week. “Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity,” she added.
Israel says a naval blockade is necessary to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into the coastal enclave. The Israeli military said its naval forces had “diverted” the Madleen at sea within what it described as “the blockade-enforcement zone, in accordance with international law.”
The military added in a statement that the flotilla members had “repeatedly refused Israel’s offer to offload their cargo and pass it into the Gaza Strip through operational land crossings, without breaching the blockade.”
A spokeswoman for Israel’s immigration authority, Sabin Hadad, confirmed that four of the activists had waived their right to a hearing. She said the other eight had been transferred to Givon Prison in Ramleh, near Ben-Gurion International Airport, for up to 96 hours.
Ms. Thunberg left Israel on a flight to France and was scheduled to fly on from there to Sweden, her home country, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry. The ministry posted photographs on social media that appeared to show her on a plane.
A spokeswoman for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, Ann Wright, said the coalition “generally encourages high-profile volunteers to leave as soon as possible to be able to speak directly to the media about their experiences to counter what the Israeli government may be saying.”
After landing in Paris, Ms. Thunberg told reporters at the airport that the Madleen’s mission was to bring as much aid as possible to Gaza while sending “a message of solidarity and hope” to the Palestinians.
Asked why she had been among the first to leave Israel, she said, “Why would I want to stay in an Israeli prison more than necessary?”
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition leads an international grass-roots campaign that opposes Israel’s longstanding naval blockade of Gaza by sending ships carrying humanitarian aid to the enclave. The Madleen set sail from Sicily this month.
Israel vowed to prevent the boat from reaching Gaza, saying that its military would use any means to stop it from breaching the blockade.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry said that the Madleen had been diverted toward Israeli shores. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said that its activists had been “kidnapped” by the Israeli military.
