Three Turkish deputies arrested by Israel are on their way to return to Türkiye on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry announced.
The deputies were brought to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv Wednesday night after being disembarked at the Port of Ashdod, ministry sources said. The sources also noted that they might return to Türkiye via a third country by air.
The ministry said that the deputies have moved to Azerbaijan from where they will travel to Türkiye.
Also 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, they added.
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.
Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş had harshly critisized the move by Israel, saying it was “unacceptable.”
“Both for the Turks, for the citizens of the Republic of Türkiye, and for our deputies, we say as the will of the Assembly that these friends of ours should be released from the place where they were detained immediately and brought back to Türkiye. We advise Israel to come to its senses on this issue.”
Meanwhile, the Turkish Parliament on Wednesday unanimously adopted a motion condemning Israel’s attack on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla Coalition in international waters, calling it a “shameful assault” on humanitarian activists and a violation of international law.
The motion condemned the assault on the vessel Conscience, which carried 21 Turkish citizens, including lawmakers Sema Silkin Ün, Mehmet Atmaca and Necmettin Çalışkan, saying the attack “was in fact a vile strike against the Turkish Parliament itself."
Lawmakers also vowed to pursue legal accountability for Israeli actions in international courts, stressing that the crimes committed against members of the Sumud and Freedom flotillas would not go unpunished.
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.
