Greta Thunberg departs Israel on flight to Paris after detention aboard aid ship

Swedish climate and human rights activist Greta Thunberg departed Israel on a flight to France after being detained by Israeli forces aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza.

Swedish climate and human rights activist Greta Thunberg departed Israel on a flight to France on Tuesday after being detained by Israeli forces alongside other activists aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza. “Greta Thunberg just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden (via France),” Israel’s foreign ministry wrote in a post on X alongside two photos of the young activist aboard a plane. Thunberg, 22, is a well-known climate activist who has long eschewed air travel, famously sailing to a climate conference in New York in 2019. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which organized the aid ship, the Madleen, said that four of the 12 activists who had been on board left Israel on Tuesday: Thunberg, two French citizens and a Spanish citizen. Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament, remains in detention, along with seven other activists from Turkey, the Netherlands, France, Brazil and Germany, it said. “Over the last days and hours, the President of the European Parliament has been in constant contact with the Israeli authorities…to ensure the safety and security of the Member of the European Parliament, Rima Hassan, who was one of the people aboard the boat Madleen and all those accompanying her,” Delphine Colard, a spokesperson for the European Parliament, said on Monday. Adalah, an Israel-based non-governmental legal organization that is representing some of the activists, said that those who remain are being held in Givon Prison in Ramleh, central Israel.