Rights Group says that volunteers, including MEP Rima Hassan, subject to “ill -treatment, aggressive treatment”.
The Palestinian Rights group Adalah confirmed the expulsion by Israel of six other activists detained aboard the Madleen aid ship while they were looking to draw international attention to the illegal blockade of Israel of Gaza.
The rights defense group, which legally represented the 12 passengers who were seized by Israeli forces in the eastern Mediterranean this week, said Thursday that the six French prisoners – two French citizens, including a member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan, and nationals of Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands and Turkiye – had left Israel.
On Friday, two other French nationals remain in police custody awaiting deportation, Adalah told the AFP news agency.
“During their detention, volunteers were subjected to ill -treatment, punitive measures and aggressive treatment, and two volunteers were held for a certain period of solo detention,” said Adalah.
Hassan, a member of the French-Palestinian of the European Parliament, had already been prohibited from entering Israel and the Palestinian territory, due to his support for the boycotts of the country in the light of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had rejected the aid boat as a “selfie yacht”, published a photo of Hassan on what seemed to be a plane, confirming the expulsion of the six passengers.
Four of the passengers of the ship, including Swedish activist from the Climate Greta Thunberg and the journalist for Tel Aviv Tribune Mubasher, Omar Faiad, were expelled on Tuesday.
‘We will not stop’
On Thursday, Hassan’s X account presented an article, calling on supporters to meet at the Republic in Paris, where demonstrations calling for the liberation of passengers still in Israeli detention and a lifting of the Gaza blocking had taken place earlier in the week.
The German citizen Yasemin Acar was also one of the deportees on Thursday. An online circulating video showed her by saying that she had arrived in Germany. “I just arrived in Germany. I am safe. But one thing is very clear: the headquarters of Gaza is still in progress. The illegal blockade is still in progress. People are always hungry. ”
“The only reason for which I did this, as a German citizen, is because my country, the very ground on which I stand, does not do what they are supposed to do. They send more weapons … We have to stop this. We must hold our politicians responsible for the genocide, for famine, for the murder of children, thousands of men and women. We don’t stop. “
The 12 people aboard Madleen have been prohibited from Israel for 100 years.
‘Catastrophic hunger’
The United Nations warned that the entire population of Gaza is faced with “catastrophic hunger” after almost two years of war and over two months during which Israel blocked or strongly restricted the entry of food and other essential supplies.
After a total blockade of 11 weeks from March to May, Israel has set up a new aid program replacing the existing networks led by the United Nations and charitable organizations, managed by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by the United States (GHF).
However, the sporadic distribution of supplies to the Palestinians was marred by repeated shootings, with more than 220 aid seekers killed by Israeli forces during the two weeks that followed the start of operations, according to health authorities. Only Thursday, at least 26 help seekers were killed in Israeli drone attacks.
Israeli forces seized Madleen and held its crew early on Monday, around 100 naval miles (185 km) off Gaza, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the group that organized the trip.
The ship, accompanied by the Israeli navy, arrived in the Israeli Port of Ashdod on Monday evening, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He was carrying humanitarian aid, including rice and babies formula in Gaza, in order to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis.