Israel to expel Flotilla activists

Israel is to expel hundreds of human rights activists after thwarting their cause of breaking the siege of the Gaza Strip through a deadly commando assault.

The 680 international campaigners had travelled to the impoverished coastal sliver with a six-ship relief convoy, titled the Freedom Flotilla. The ships were carrying some 10,000 tons of construction material, medical equipment and school supplies.

Israeli forces attacked the fleet in international waters 150km (90 miles) from Gaza on Monday, killing at least 20 people. The activists were subsequently detained and interrogated by Israeli police.

“It was agreed that the detainees would be deported immediately,” said Nir Hefez, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a written statement to reporters, the Reuters news agency reported.

The assault, which Netanyahu has called an act of “self-defense,” has been internationally condemned.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that “had Israelis heeded to my call and to the call of the international community by lifting the blockade of Gaza, this tragic incident would not have happened.”

Tightening its restrictions on Gaza, Tel Aviv subjected the coastal sliver to an all-out land, aerial, and sea blockade in mid-June 2007.