Authorities at the Israeli Ben- Gurion International Airport on Sunday detained several pro- Palestinians visitors on incoming flights, in a bid to block a coordinated mass arrival dubbed "flytilla".

Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Xinhua that they had detained and were questioning four protesters who arrived on one flight from Paris as agents of the "Welcome to Palestine" campaign.

By 9:00 a.m. local time, police had pulled off eight passengers on a number of flights upon their arrival, said Army Radio, adding that one passenger from Jordan violently resisted, two were immediately deported while two others were allowed entry.

Rosenfeld said they are still expecting the arrival of "several hundred" protesters, among the estimated 54,000 Israelis returning from Passover holiday abroad.

More than 600 police and security officials are scanning lists of expected arrivals, prepared by the Foreign Ministry in coordination with authorities of some other countries.

"Usually airlines don't allow these people to embark, because then they have to cover the expense of their return flights," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said, according to Israel National News.

One organizer of the campaign told local media that "the Israeli government is afraid of the arrival of a few hundred unarmed people," specifying that the protesters intended "to reach Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank."

The Prime Minister's Office, in a letter distributed in several languages to the activists as they arrived, mocked their intentions to demonstrate against Israel, pointing to violence in Syria and other Arab states.

"We appreciate your choosing to make Israel the object of your humanitarian concerns," the letter began, noting that the activists "could have chosen to protest the Syrian regime's daily savagery against its own people, which has claimed thousands of lives."

The letter went on to say that the groups could have instead protested "the Iranian regime's brutal crackdown on dissent and support of terrorism throughout the world," or against "Hamas rule in Gaza, where terror organizations commit a double war crime by firing rockets at civilians and hiding behind civilians."

West Bank Palestinians slammed the Israeli operation against the groups' arrival, similar to an event last July, in which some 140 out of 300 protesters were deported, with hundreds of others barred from boarding flights at foreign airports.

"Israel insists in obstructing any international activity in support of the Palestinian cause," Jamal Jom'a, a coordinator of the popular committees in areas around Ramallah, told Xinhua last week.

"The activists will be denied entry. They will be transferred to holding facilities and be kept in custody until they are deported," Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said last Monday.

"Israel will prevent this provocation the same way any other country bars the entry of hostile entities," he said, adding "we will handle the provocateurs as quickly and efficiently as possible, but we will not be chasing them down the airport halls."

Israel has threatened fine and sanctions against air carriers that allow protesters to board their flights to Israel.

"Welcome to Palestine" spokesmen told the Haaretz daily that more than half of the 1,500 expected to arrive were told by their airlines that their flights had been canceled, including Lufthansa, Air France and Easyjet.

"Israel passed lists of hundreds of activists to companies, along with a letter in which it claimed that they were coming to carry out a provocation and disturb the peace, and this is just not true," said Bethlehem-based Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh.

"It is very unfortunate that these companies bowed to Israeli pressure," Qumsiyeh said, adding that they are considering filing lawsuits against these airlines.