Israel to Deport All Flotilla Activists by Day's End

All of the nearly 700 activists detained in a deadly raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip will be deported by the end of the day, says Israel's attorney general. Israel has decided not to prosecute any of the activists, despite official comments earlier that they were considering charging about 50 people believed to be involved in violence, the AP reports. "Keeping them here would do more damage to the country's vital interests than good," Yehuda Weinstein wrote in his order today.

Some 400 activists, most of them Turkish citizens, had been bused to Israel's international airport for flights home by midday. An additional 124 activists from a dozen Muslim nations without diplomatic relations with Israel were deported to Jordan before sunrise. About 100 foreigners remained in a prison in southern Israel by midday, officials said.
(More Israel stories.)