Six additional activists from the Madleen boat that sought to break Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza earlier this week were transferred to Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday to be deported from Israel.
Both the Foreign Ministry and the Adalah civil rights organization confirmed that six more of the passengers were set to be deported on Thursday and early Friday, three days after their boat was intercepted by the IDF and towed to Ashdod.
They are Mark van Rennes from the Netherlands, Suayb Ordu from Turkey, Yasemin Acar from Germany, Thiago Avila from Brazil, Reva Viard from France and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament for the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party who is of Palestinian descent.
“Six more passengers from the ‘selfie yacht,’ including Rima Hassan, are on their way out of Israel,” the Foreign Ministry wrote on X alongside photos of them in the airport and aboard planes. “Bye-bye—and don’t forget to take a selfie before you leave.”
The two remaining activists, Pascal Maurieras and Yanis Mhamdi, both of whom are also French, are scheduled to be deported on Friday and will remain in custody at Givon Prison in Ramle until then.
Four activists from the Madleen waived their right to be brought before a judge and were therefore deported immediately on Tuesday, including famed Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The other eight challenged their detention after the Israeli navy intercepted the Madleen in international waters and towed the vessel to the Port of Ashdod. But the Detention Review Tribunal ruled that the naval blockade on Gaza is lawful under Israeli law and that the activists knowingly attempted to breach it and were therefore lawfully detained.
Adalah confirmed that Ordu and Acar had already been deported as of Thursday afternoon. Photos from the Foreign Ministry showed Hassan and Viard aboard a plane, as well as Avila boarding a flight with his guitar.
Adalah claimed that “while in custody, [the] volunteers were subjected to mistreatment, punitive measures and aggressive treatment, and two volunteers were held for some period of time in solitary confinement.”
In a post on Instagram on Wednesday, Hassan claimed that she had been “placed in solitary confinement after writing ‘Free Palestine’ on the walls of her cell.” She claimed that she had launched a hunger strike in protest, as had Avila.
Hassan could be seen in a photo from Ben Gurion Airport shared by the Foreign Ministry on Thursday eating a sandwich.
The flotilla came as Israel faces mounting international pressure to allow more aid into Gaza to alleviate widespread shortages of food and basic supplies.
The activist mission organized by the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel Freedom Flotilla Coalition had been carrying a small cargo of humanitarian aid, including rice and baby formula. Its members said they wanted to raise international awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has been devastated by months of war.
Israel dismissed the voyage as a pro-Hamas publicity stunt. “The tiny amount of aid that was on the yacht and not consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels,” the Foreign Ministry said.
All 12 people on board the Madleen when it was intercepted by the IDF in the eastern Mediterranean have been banned from Israel for 100 years.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.