By Olivia Le Poidevin, David Latona and Howard Goller
(Reuters) -Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg arrived in Greece to a cheering pro-Palestinian crowd on Monday after she and hundreds of other activists captured by Israel on the high seas were deported following an attempt to bring aid to Gaza.
Israel said it expelled 171 activists on Monday including Thunberg, bringing the total deported over so far to 341, out of 479 people it detained when it captured the flotilla attempting to break its naval blockade of Gaza.
The Greek Foreign Ministry said 161 of the activists arrived on a flight to Athens on Monday, including Thunberg, 22. They included 27 Greeks, as well as citizens of nearly 20 other countries.
"Let me be very clear. There is a genocide going on," Thumberg told the crowd at the Athens airport referring to Israeli military action in Gaza.
"Our international systems are betraying Palestinians. They are not even able to prevent the worst war crimes from happening," she said. "What we aimed to do with the Global Sumud Flotilla was to step up when our governments failed to do their legal obligation."
The activists attempted to reach Gaza in scores of vessels to bring aid supplies and draw attention to the plight of Gaza, where most of the 2.2 million residents have been driven from their homes and the United Nations says hunger is rampant.
Israel, which rejects accusations it is carrying out genocide in Gaza and says reports of hunger there are exaggerated, has dismissed the flotilla as a publicity stunt benefitting Hamas. It had previously detained Thunberg at sea in a similar attempt to breach the blockade in June.
Earlier, Swiss and Spanish activists from the flotilla said they were subjected to inhumane conditions during their detention by Israeli forces.
Israel's foreign ministry issued a statement, accompanied by photos of Thunberg at the airport, saying all participants' legal rights had been upheld and the only violence involved an activist who bit a female medic at Israel's Ketziot prison.
DEPORTED ACTIVISTS ALLEGE MISTREATMENT
Among nine members of the flotilla who arrived home in Switzerland, some alleged sleep deprivation, lack of water and food, as well as some being beaten, kicked, and locked in a cage, the group representing them said in a statement.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson rejected the allegations.
Spanish activists also alleged mistreatment on their arrival in Spain late on Sunday after being deported.
"They beat us, dragged us along the ground, blindfolded us, tied our hands and feet, put us in cages and insulted us," lawyer Rafael Borrego told reporters at Madrid's airport.
Swedish activists said on Saturday that Thunberg was shoved and forced to wear an Israeli flag during her detention, while others said they had clean food and water withheld and had their medication and belongings confiscated.
After she arrived in Athens, Thunberg said she could "talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment, trust me, but that is not the story".
"What happened here was that Israel, while continuing to worsen and escalate their genocide and mass destruction with genocidal intent, attempting to erase an entire population, an entire nation in front of our very eyes, they once again violated international law by preventing humanitarian aid from getting into Gaza while people are being starved."
ISRAEL SAYS CLAIMS ARE COMPLETE LIES
Israel's foreign ministry has described widespread reports of detainees being mistreated after the flotilla was intercepted as "complete lies".
A spokesperson told Reuters over the weekend that all detainees were given access to water, food, and restrooms, adding: "they were not denied access to legal counsel and all their legal rights were fully upheld".
On Sunday, the Swiss Embassy in Tel Aviv visited 10 Swiss nationals and said all were "in relatively good health, given the circumstances".
Former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, who was also on the flotilla, said there had been "mistreatment, but that was nothing compared to what the Palestinian people suffer every day".
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, David Latona, Alexander Cornwell and Howard GollerWriting by Charlie Devereux and Howard GollerEditing by Alexandra Hudson and Peter Graff)
