Türkiye’s consulate officials in Tel Aviv expected to meet face-to-face with detained Turkish citizens: Foreign Ministry
ANKARA/ISTANBUL
Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that 18 Turkish citizens, detained aboard the ships of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, had been taken to Ketziot Detention Center in Israel, and Turkish consulate officials were set to meet them face-to-face.
“18 citizens have been taken to the Ketziot Detention Center. Our consulate officials in Tel Aviv are expected to meet with our citizens face-to-face today,” sources from the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
The sources also emphasized that all necessary steps had been taken to ensure the Turkish citizens’ return to their country as soon as possible, including the arrangement of a special flight.
In addition to the 18 Turkish citizens, three Turkish MPs, who were on board the boats seized illegally by Israel, were brought to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv Wednesday night after being disembarked at the Port of Ashdod, they added. The sources also noted that they might return to Türkiye via a third country by air.
Freedom Flotilla Coalition
The Israeli navy attacked the ships of the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s Thousand Madleens to Gaza early Wednesday in international waters, roughly 120 nautical miles from the enclave.
The convoy set sail after Israeli naval forces attacked and seized more than 40 boats last week that were part of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla and detained over 450 activists on board. Most of them have been deported.
Israel, as the occupying power, has also previously attacked Gaza-bound ships, seized their cargo, and deported activists on board.
It has maintained a blockade on Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for nearly 18 years and tightened the siege in March, when it closed border crossings and blocked food and medicine deliveries, pushing the enclave into famine.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 67,200 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable.
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