Tunde Sulaiman 
Israel said it has begun to deport 12 pro-Palestinian activists, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, whose Gaza-bound aid boat was seized by Israeli forces in the Mediterranean on Monday.
The Israeli foreign ministry said Thunberg departed Tel Aviv yesterday morning on a flight to France after she agreed to be deported.
But France said five of the six French activists had refused to sign their deportation orders and would now be brought before an Israeli judicial authority.
Their yacht, the Madleen, was intercepted while they tried to deliver a “symbolic” amount of aid to Gaza in defiance of Israel’s naval blockade to highlight the humanitarian crisis there, reports the BBC.
The Israeli foreign ministry dismissed it as a “selfie yacht”, and announced on Monday night that the activists had been transferred to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport following their arrival at the port of Ashdod on Monday night.
