Activists released from Israeli custody after being detained on a flotilla trying to take aid to Gaza were subjected to abuse, organisers have alleged, with several hospitalised with injuries and at least 15 reporting sexual assaults, including rape. Israel's prison service denied the allegations, and Reuters was not able to verify them independently. Germany said some of its nationals had been injured and that some accusations were serious, without giving further details.
Israel has begun deporting the hundreds of activists abducted by Israeli forces who stormed a Gaza aid flotilla earlier this week, according to the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Adalah. The rights group told Al Jazeera on Thursday that most of the roughly 430 abducted activists were being transported to Ramon Airport in southern Israel, from where they would be deported. The rest will be deported from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said his country's navy will join Italy in sending warships to protect the Global Sumud Flotilla, which has come under drone attack in international waters en route to deliver aid to Gaza. Speaking to reporters in New York on Wednesday, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Sanchez said international law must be respected and the citizens of 45 nations participating in the aid mission had every right to sail in the Mediterranean unharmed.