Israel holds hundreds seized during raid

Israel has began the process of deporting more than 600 pro-Palestinian activists who were brought ashore after a deadly navy raid on an international aid convoy heading for Gaza.

A senior interior ministry official, speaking on army radio, said an initial wave of more than 40 foreign activists were on their way to Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv to be repatriated.

"A total of 686 passengers were on board the intercepted boats, and of that number 45 are on their way to be deported," said Yossi Edelstein. "Those who agreed to be deported have been taken to Ben Gurion."

Others who refused to identify themselves have been taken to a prison in the southern city of Beersheva, he said.

Those who had not agreed to be deported would be brought before a judge who would decide whether or not to prosecute them. If no charges were pressed, they would be deported within 72 hours.

Activists on the doomed flotilla had come from 38 different countries, most of which did not have diplomatic relations with Israel, Edelstein said.

As well as the Europeans, there were activists from Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, Algeria and Pakistan along with a large number from Turkey.

But Edelstein was not able to confirm the nationalities of the nine who died during the raid early on Monday in international waters between Cyprus and the Gaza Strip.

Some 480 activists were being held in Beersheva, while the remaining hundred or so were on Tuesday still at Ashdod port, where the six aid ships were brought after the pre-dawn operation.

Outside Ashdod port, a rowdy group of around 40 Israeli demonstrators waved Israeli flags and shouted slogans against the activists, an AFP photographer said.

Another 45 activists, most of them Turkish, are being treated in various hospitals across Israel.

Israel has accused activists on the biggest ship in the flotilla of having provoked the confrontation by attacking its soldiers as they boarded the vessel.