Greta Thunberg arrived in Greece to a cheering pro-Palestinian crowd on Monday after she and hundreds of other activists captured by Israel on the high seas were deported following an attempt to bring aid to Gaza.
Israel said it expelled 171 activists, including the climate activist, bringing the total deported so far to 341, out of 479 people it detained when it captured the flotilla attempting to break its naval blockade of Gaza.
Greece said 161 of the activists arrived on a flight to Athens on Monday, including Ms Thunberg. They included 27 Greeks, as well as citizens of nearly 20 other countries.
“Let me be very clear. There is a genocide going on,” Ms Thunberg told the crowd at Athens airport.
“Our international systems are betraying Palestinians. They are not even able to prevent the worst war crimes from happening,” she said.
“What we aimed to do with the Global Sumud Flotilla was to step up when our governments failed to do their legal obligation.”
The activists attempted to reach Gaza in scores of vessels to bring aid supplies and draw attention to the plight of Gaza, where most of the 2.2 million residents have been driven from their homes and the United Nations says hunger is rampant.
Israel, which rejects accusations it is carrying out genocide in Gaza and says reports of hunger there are exaggerated, has dismissed the flotilla as a publicity stunt benefitting Hamas. It had previously detained Ms Thunberg at sea in a similar attempt to breach the blockade in June.
Earlier, Swiss and Spanish activists from the flotilla said they were subjected to inhumane conditions during their detention by Israeli forces.
Israel’s foreign ministry issued a statement, accompanied by photos of Ms Thunberg at the airport, saying all participants’ legal rights had been upheld and the only violence involved an activist who bit a female medic at Israel’s Ketziot prison.
Among nine members of the flotilla who arrived home in Switzerland, some alleged sleep deprivation, lack of water and food, as well as being beaten, kicked, and locked in a cage, the group representing them said in a statement.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson rejected the allegations.
Spanish activists also alleged mistreatment on their arrival in Spain late on Sunday after being deported.
“They beat us, dragged us along the ground, blindfolded us, tied our hands and feet, put us in cages and insulted us,” lawyer Rafael Borrego told reporters at Madrid’s airport.
