Israel kills three rescuers, journalist in strikes on Gaza city

CAIRO: Israel killed three medical services staff and a journalist during strikes on Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City, Palestinian media including Hamas-linked Shehab news agency said on Monday.

The three rescuers were killed while working to save wounded people and recover dead bodies in the neighborhood, Shehab said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel on Tuesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza.

Greta Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there.

Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement.

They will be held in a detention centre ahead of a court hearing. It was not immediately clear when that would happen.

Israeli forces boarded the charity vessel as it neared Gaza early on Monday, trying to break through Israel’s longstanding naval blockade, which has gained international attention since Israel also cut off land access to the strip in March. Israel now allows in only limited supplies of food distributed by a group it backs.

The British-flagged yacht was taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod and the 12-strong crew were transferred overnight to Ben Gurion airport.

The activists had been carrying a small cargo of humanitarian aid, including rice and baby formula, and 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.

Israel released an image of Greta Thunberg sitting on a plane ahead of its departure for Paris. She usually refuses to fly because of the carbon emissions of the airline industry.

Organisers released a video of Thunberg on Monday, filmed on baord the vessel before it was captured, in which she said that if it were taken that would mean Israel had kidnapped her and the rest of the crew in international waters.