By Melike Pala
BRUSSELS (AA) - Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Saturday that a first group of 26 Italian citizens detained in Israel after participating in the Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla will leave the country on a charter flight.
"A first group of Italian who were on the Flotilla is about to leave on a charter flight. We have arranged for them to board a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul. They have already been transferred to the Ramon airbase and will depart from Eilat airport," Tajani wrote on the US social media platform X.
According to the Italian Foreign Ministry, the group agreed to sign the expulsion order and was therefore granted an expedited departure procedure.
Tajani added that another 15 Italian citizens have not signed the voluntary release form and will have to await judicial expulsion, expected to take place next week.
"I have once again given instructions to the Italian Embassy in Tel Aviv to ensure that the remaining compatriots are treated with respect for their rights," he said.
Meanwhile, Maria Elena Delia, spokesperson for the Global Movement to Gaza, said the group's legal team has filed a complaint with the Rome Prosecutor's Office over what she described as "the kidnapping of the activists," ANSA news agency reported.
"The flotilla activists were detained illegally without any legal basis, taken by the Israeli Navy without having committed any crime," she said.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a network of international civil society groups, has organized multiple attempts since 2010 to break the blockade of Gaza and highlight its humanitarian crisis.
Israeli naval forces attacked and seized vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla on Thursday and detained more than 470 activists from over 50 countries. The flotilla had been attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenge Israel’s blockade of the enclave.
Israel has maintained the blockade of Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for almost 18 years.
Since October 2023, Israeli bombardments have killed more than 66,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable.