Six activists from Gaza-bound vessels freed

Passengers are to be flown back to their countries A group of 21 activists who tried to sail to Gaza in breach of an Israeli blockade of the territory remain in Israeli custody, pending legal proceedings, the interior ministry said on Sunday .
"There are 21 passengers detained who refused to be expelled immediately and are engaged in proceedings against their deportation before an Israeli judge," interior ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad told AFP.
"Only after these proceedings are complete... can they be deported," she said.
Israel has freed six of 27 passengers and crew who were aboard two ships intercepted by its navy while trying to breach the Jewish state's blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip , an official said on Saturday.
Commandos boarded the Irish-flagged Saoirse (Freedom) and the Canadian ship Tahrir (Arabic for Liberation) in international waters off Gaza on Friday before the navy escorted them to the port of Ashdod, the military said.
Interior ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad told AFP news agency the six released included an Israeli Arab, two Greek crewmen and three journalists -- from Egypt, Spain and the United States.
She said the remaining 21 people were still being held at a detention facility in Ramla near Tel Aviv, after questioning by immigration authorities.
Asked when the 21 activists were expected to be freed, Hadad explained the deportation process requires them to see a judge, a process that would take at least 72 hours.
At the end of the process, Israel would fly the activists back to their homelands, she said.
 Fourteen of the activists held by Israel were Irish, the rest are from Canada, Scotland, Australia and the US.
Israeli authorities have detained pro-Palestinian activists on board the two "Freedom Waves to Gaza" vessels, foiling the latest attempt to break the four-year Israeli blockade of the territory.
The ships were forced to sail into the Israeli port of Ashdod, where all 27 passengers were handed over to the authorities and taken to the detention facility.
Reports suggest that the first few personnel to board the ship were very aggressive, using tasters and water cannons until they realised the activists were non-violent.
They soon took the ships under control.
Once the vessels carrying activists, journalists and crew members from nine countries reached Ashdod, they were transferred to the custody of the Israeli police and immigration authorities.
The Israeli authorities said those who refuse to leave the country voluntarily would have access to a lawyer and 72 hours to appeal being sent home.
In a press release issued by organisers shortly after they said they had lost contact with the two boats, David Heap, a member of the steering committee on board the Tahrir, said the fact the boats had reached international waters was a "victory for the movement".
Both vessels were part of previous attempts to break the siege on the Gaza strip that was stalled when the Greek government refused to let a flotilla leave from its shores in July this year.
"We are closer to Gaza this time, and hope to get even closer the next time, until we reach our destination," said Heap.
"Despite economic blackmail, despite the previous outsourcing of the blockade to Greece, and despite Israel mobilising a significant portion of its navy to stop us, we are now even closer to reaching Gaza and breaking the blockade."
The two vessels left the port of Fethiye in southwest Turkey on Wednesday after Turkish authorities gave them permission to sail to the Greek island of Rhodes.
Sailing under the flag of the Comoros Islands, the Tahrir was carrying six activists, a captain and five journalists.
The Saoirse - sailing under the US flag but carrying mostly Irish nationals - has 15 passengers on board, none of whom were journalists.
Heap told Al Jazeera that the activists chose to leave from Fethiye because of the strained relations between Turkey and Israel.
"The Turkish government has been creating more distance from Israel diplomatically and we know there is support from Turkish society for what we are doing.
"Our judgment was that the Turkish state would not interfere with us if we didn’t make too much of a public issue of our plan to depart from there," Heap told Al Jazeera.