Middle East News
Israel holds 610 Gaza flotilla activists in new jail (Extra)
Jun 1, 2010, 10:03 GMT
Tel Aviv - Israel has held 610 foreign activists from the Gaza 'Freedom Flotilla' in a facility in the south of the country, a spokesman for the Israel Prison Service confirmed Tuesday.
He said the foreign nationals were held under 'good conditions' in two-person or four-person cells of a new criminal prison called Ela, which opened in the southern Israeli Negev city of Beersheba only 10 days ago and was designed to hold up to 800 inmates.
Most of the activists, the earliest arrived late Monday afternoon and the last Tuesday morning, came with no personal belongings, so they were all handed undergarments, toiletries, slippers, sheets and blankets. They were also given meals, said the spokesman.
Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said so far some 50 of the activists overpowered on board the flotilla had identified themselves and were taken to Ben Gurion International Aiport near Tel Aviv for deportation.
The rest were still being questioned in the Ela prison, after which it would be decided who would be deported and who would face legal action.
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