Spanish flotilla activist bites, lightly injures prison medic

A Spanish activist detained by Israeli forces aboard the “Global Sumud Flotilla” to Gaza last week attacked a medical staffer at Ketziot Prison after a physical examination, Jerusalem’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

The activist “bit a female medical staff member this evening at Ketziot Prison after the staff member escorted her back from a routine medical examination,” according to the statement.

The victim sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene, according to the ministry, and police were called in “to handle the attacker.”

The activist had been due to be deported on Monday. Despite the attack, it appears her deportation will go ahead as planned, although she may still be summoned for questioning, according to Ynet.

The Israel Defense Forces arrested almost 500 pro-Palestinian activists, the majority of them European citizens, on Oct. 2-3 as they tried to enter the interception zone around the coast of Gaza aboard 42 vessels.

The declared objective of the Global Sumud Flotilla—sumud meaning “steadfastness” in Arabic—was to “to break the illegal siege on Gaza by sea, open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide.”

Jerusalem maintains that its naval blockade on the enclave, imposed on Jan. 3, 2009, is compatible with international law. It aims to prevent weapons, terrorists and funds from entering or exiting Gaza by sea.

On Sunday, 29 more flotilla participants were deported from Israel to Spain, bringing the total number of activists repatriated to almost 200, according to a separate Foreign Ministry statement. The latest deportees were citizens of Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands.

“Israel is keen to have all the participants of this provocation deported as quickly as possible, but some of them deliberately chose to prolong the legal deportation process, preferring to linger in Israel,” it stated.

“All the legal rights of the participants in this PR stunt are fully upheld. Don’t believe the fake news they are spreading,” the statement added.

Earlier on Sunday, Jerusalem denied claims that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and others detained aboard the flotilla had been mistreated.

Denouncing reports claiming Thunberg was detained in a cell infested with bedbugs with too little food and water as “brazen lies,” Jerusalem said “all the detainees’ legal rights are fully upheld” at prison facilities.

In correspondence sent by the Swedish Foreign Ministry to people close to Thunberg, and seen by The Guardian, an embassy official who visited the activist said she claimed to have been mistreated in Israel, including by being forced to hold flags. The identity of the flags remained unclear.

Jerusalem’s Foreign Ministry noted on Sunday that Thunberg “did not complain to the Israeli authorities about any of these ludicrous and baseless allegations—because they never occurred.”

According to legal documents made public on Sunday, Thunberg did not raise her complaints during a court hearing held in her case, only asking for medication to be provided to detainees and to return to Stockholm.

“She has nothing to add beyond that,” according to the court filing.