Israel deports 171 activists, including Serbian student Ognjen Markovic

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and 170 members of the Global Sumud flotilla departed from Ramon Airport in southern Israel, bound for Greece and Slovakia, the online newspaper quoted the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The deportees are citizens of Greece, Italy, France, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Switzerland, Norway, the UK, Serbia, and the United States, the Ministry noted.

It said that “all the legal rights of the participants in this PR stunt were and will continue to be fully upheld,” adding that “the lies they are spreading are part of their pre-planned fake news campaign.”

Thunberg and other detainees claim Israel held them in unlawful conditions.

The flights to Greece and Slovakia brought the total number of Sumud flotilla activists deported from Israel to 341, while 138 still remain.