Greta Thunberg will be deported from Israel, where she is currently being detained in a bedbug-infested holding cell, on a Greek government-funded flight after her failed attempt to breach the maritime blockade around the Gaza Strip with an aid flotilla.
The 22-year-old Swedish climate activist is set to leave the Jewish state on Monday aboard a flight from Ramon Airport to Athens, alongside 27 activists from Greece who were among hundreds that took part in the coordinated Global Sumud Flotilla, YnetNews reported.
About 170 flotilla activists have already been deported back to their home countries.
Thunberg’s boat was one of 42 vessels carrying over 450 activists that were intercepted in the Mediterranean by the Israeli Navy on Thursday — with Israel’s defense minister dubbing the flotilla a Hamas terrorist operation.
Activists attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza in protest of the war were arrested by Israeli forces and jailed a Ketziot prison, a facility in the Negev desert, where Thunberg has complained of dehydration, lack of food, and horrific conditions in her bedbug-infested cell.
“She also stated that she had developed rashes, which she suspects were caused by bedbugs,” Sweden’s Foreign Ministry wrote in an email to Thunberg’s parents, The Guardian reported.
“She spoke of harsh treatment and said she had been sitting for long periods on hard surfaces.”
The outspoken activist also told Swedish officials she was forced to pose for photos holding flags — though it remains unclear which flags she was made to display.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the claims as “outrageous lies,” according to the Jewish outlet.
“All legal rights of the detainees are fully upheld,” ministry officials said.
“It is noteworthy that Thunberg and other detainees refused to expedite their deportation and insisted on extending their detention. Thunberg did not file any complaints with Israeli authorities about these absurd and baseless claims — because they never happened.”
Thunberg also took part in a failed pro-Palestine flotilla mission in June that was intercepted before reaching Gaza’s shores.
