Israel has deported Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and three others, after seizing the Madleen, the Gaza-bound humanitarian aid ship on which Thunberg was sailing in a crew of 12.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thunberg flew out of Tel Aviv early on Tuesday, bound for Sweden via France, and released her photos on the flight. Upon arriving in Paris’s Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Thunberg told reporters she and her companions had been “kidnapped in international waters”.
Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler, who was among the journalists interviewing Thunberg at the Paris airport, said, “She clearly looked very tired and was in the same clothes she was wearing when she was detained … This has been quite a difficult number of hours for her.”
While Thunberg said she was “OK”, she described being treated in a “dehumanising way” by Israeli authorities, said Butler. However, she emphasised that her brief detention was nothing compared with what Palestinians regularly endure under Israeli occupation, Butler added.
According to the legal rights group Adalah, which is representing Thunberg and the other activists and a journalist who sailed in the Madleen vessel towards Gaza, she was among four crew members who accepted deportation.
Omar Faiad, Al Jazeera Mubasher reporter, who was also on the Madleen and deported by Israel, said after his arrival in Paris: “We were incarcerated for three consecutive days, denied the right to contact anybody, even lawyers … We were then coerced to sign a bunch of documents. None of us know the content of these documents. The French consul advised me to sign a paper in order to be able to fly, so I did.”
The eight activists in custody were brought before an Israeli Detention Review Tribunal in the Ramleh detention facility, according to Adalah. The tribunal reviewed custody orders issued against them by the Ministry of Interior, pending their deportation.
Israel is treating all 12 individuals as if they “illegally entered” the country, despite forcibly detaining them in international waters and transferring them into Israeli territory against their will, Adalah said. All 12 were also informed on Monday that Israel had imposed a 100-year entry ban on each of them. The hearings were held over five hours Tuesday.
Adalah’s legal team argued that Israel’s interception of the Madleen and the arrest of peaceful, unarmed volunteers attempting to break the blockade on Gaza violated international law.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said five of those subject to forced deportation proceedings are French nationals who have received consular support. One of them is French Member of European Parliament Rima Hassan, who refused to sign a document stating she had entered Israeli territory illegally, according to French lawmaker Clemence Guette.
Large rallies have taken place in France and other countries to protest against Israel’s interception of the Madleen and the crew’s detention.
‘A legal duty’
Israeli naval forces seized the Madleen and detained its crew early on Monday, about 100 nautical miles (185km) off the coast of Gaza, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the group that organised the journey.
The vessel, accompanied by Israel’s navy, arrived in the Israeli port of Ashdod on Monday evening, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It was carrying humanitarian aid, including rice and baby formula, to Gaza, in a bid to raise awareness about the dire humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
On Tuesday, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirmed the status of those who were aboard the Madleen.
💥Freedom Flotilla Coalition Update💥
The #FreedomFlotillaCoalition confirms that 4 of the 12 abducted from international waters have been deported, while 8 remain unjustly detained. Israel is handling the custody of all 12 as though they had entered illegally—even though they… pic.twitter.com/8HfViRu0ny
— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) June 10, 2025
The United Nations has warned that Gaza’s entire population faces “catastrophic hunger” following nearly two years of war and over two months in which Israel has been blocking or heavily restricting the entry of food and other essential supplies.
Following an 11-week total blockade from March to May, Israel allowed minimal aid deliveries to resume. However, the distribution of those supplies has been marred by repeated shootings, with 130 aid seekers killed since May 27, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry portrayed the Madleen voyage as a public relations stunt, mocking the vessel as a “selfie yacht”. In response online, many opponents of Israel’s war posted pictures of Israeli forces taking selfies in destroyed Palestinian homes and across the devastated landscape in Gaza.
However, Adalah and other rights experts have slammed the seizure of the vessel and its crew as a violation of international law.
“By forcibly intercepting and blocking the Madleen, which was carrying humanitarian aid and a crew of solidarity activists, Israel has once again flouted its legal obligations towards civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip,” said Amnesty International.
“Breaking the siege is a legal duty for states and a moral imperative for all of us,” said Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. “Every Mediterranean port should send boats with aid, solidarity and humanity to Gaza.”
