Mark van Rennes, the Dutch captain of the activist ship that wanted to sail to the Gaza Strip, will not be returning to the Netherlands on Friday after all. His family reported this to the news agency ANP.
Israel was supposed to deport Van Rennes and two other volunteers and fly them back to the Netherlands. But now they are being taken from the airport in Tel Aviv back to a prison.
The captain managed to send a voice message to his family via a borrowed phone. In it, he says that his return may take a number of weeks.
The action ship Madleen was on its way to Gaza to break the Israeli blockade and deliver relief supplies. Among the twelve crew members was the well-known Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
But Israel did not allow this, arrested the activists and transferred them to Israel. The country has already deported Thunberg, among others.