The NGO representing most of the activists detained aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat that was intercepted by Israeli forces said Wednesday that two of the campaigners had been placed in solitary confinement in Israel.
One of the two is Rima Hassan, a member of European Parliament from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party who is of Palestinian descent.
"Israeli authorities transferred two of the volunteers the Brazilian volunteer Thiago Avila and the French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan – to separate prison facilities, away from the others, and placed them in solitary confinement," Israeli human rights group Adalah said in a statement.
Israeli forces on Monday intercepted the Madleen sailboat and its 12 crew members in international waters off the besieged Palestinian territory.
Israel is to expel by the end of the week four French activists who were on board the Madleen, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Wednesday.
The four, who include Hassan, will be deported on Thursday and Friday, the minister said on X.
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Another four, who are not French, were also taken into custody.
The remaining four, including two French citizens and Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, agreed to be deported immediately after being banned from Israel for 100 years.
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France's prime minister on Wednesday accused the French activists who sailed on the Madleen of capitalising on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for political attention.
"These activists obtained the effect they wanted, but it's a form of instrumentalisation to which we should not lend ourselves," Prime Minister François Bayrou said in the National Assembly.
It's "through diplomatic action, and efforts to bring together several states to pressure the Israeli government, that we can obtain the only possible solution" to the conflict, he added.
Watch moreAid ship seized by Israel named after Gaza's only fisherwoman, Madleen Kullab
Barrot added that priority in Gaza should be "an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages held by Hamas, as well as immediate, unimpeded and massive humanitarian aid access to abridge the suffering of civilian populations".
"In no way whatsoever do the gesticulations of Ms Rima Hassan, her instrumentalisation of the suffering of Gazans, help to achieve these goals," he added.
He said the French consul had visited all four French activists in Israeli detention.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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