Of the 12 people on board the Madleen carrying food and supplies for Gaza, five French activists were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily.
They were then transferred to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the foreign ministry said.
Thunberg, one of the world’s most prominent voices in the fight against climate change, has avoided air travel for years, and once sailed for a fortnight on a zero-emissions yacht to reach a UN summit in New York.
“Our consul was able to see the six French nationals arrested by the Israeli authorities last night,“ Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X.
In the early hours of Tuesday, Israel’s foreign ministry said the activist group had arrived at Ben Gurion airport to “return to their home countries”.
The vessel carrying French, German, Brazilian, Turkish, Swedish, Spanish and Dutch activists had the stated aim of delivering humanitarian aid and breaking the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory.
- Dire humanitarian conditions -
In May, another Freedom Flotilla ship, the Conscience, was damaged in international waters off Malta as it headed to Gaza, with the activists saying they suspected an Israeli drone attack.
On Sunday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said the blockade, in place for years before the Israel-Hamas war, was needed to prevent Palestinian militants from importing weapons.
Israel recently allowed some deliveries to resume after barring them for more than two months and began working with the newly formed, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Dozens of people have been killed near GHF distribution points since late May, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
“In killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination,“ the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a report.
The Israeli military said it intercepted a projectile on Tuesday that had entered Israeli airspace from Gaza.
The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
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