Israel is set to release two Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla activists who were abducted by Israeli authorities, a rights group has said.<\/p>\n
Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish-Palestinian, and Brazilian Thiago Avila will be freed on Saturday, according to a statement from the rights group Adalah, which was representing the two men.<\/p>\n
The pair will be handed over to immigration authorities and held in custody pending their deportation.<\/p>\n
Hadeel Abu Salih, the lawyer who co-represented the pair in Israeli courts, told Al Jazeera that they are \u201cexpected to be released to their home countries in the coming days\u201d.<\/p>\n
Adalah said it is \u201cclosely monitoring\u201d the situation to ensure the release goes ahead.<\/p>\n
Abu Keshek and Avila were among dozens of activists who set sail for Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off the coast of Greece.<\/p>\n
While the other 168 members of the flotilla were taken to Crete and then released, the two were taken to Israel and detained for further questioning.<\/p>\n
The vessel was part of a humanitarian effort seeking to reach Gaza with aid amid the ongoing war and Israel\u2019s blockade.<\/p>\n
Abu Salih said their abduction was a \u201cclear violation of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n
The lawyer said throughout this ordeal, the legal team \u201cargued that this entire process was a sham proceeding with no legal basis, intended to punish them for attempting to challenge Israel\u2019s illegal blockade\u201d.<\/p>\n
During their detention, Abu Kushek and Avila were \u201cheld in total isolation under punitive conditions despite the purely civilian nature of their mission\u201d, Adalah said.<\/p>\n
It added that both activists were on a hunger strike, with Abu Keshek escalating his protest by refusing water since Tuesday. Israeli authorities have been accused of abuse, but they have denied this.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, an Israeli court extended their imprisonment until Sunday, despite authorities not filing any charges against the pair, but they faced accusations of being affiliated with \u201cterrorist organisations and foreign agents\u201d, Adalah previously told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
Abu Salih dismissed Israel\u2019s claims, saying that the pair were detained over \u201cbaseless accusations and subjected to ill-treatment\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael\u2019s actions in this case, the unlawful interception and abduction, arbitrary detention, and torture, constitute grave violations of international law, enabled by the impunity Israel continues to enjoy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel is set to release two Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla activists who were abducted by Israeli authorities, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[36631,32153,31930,496,36630,3252,37,14176,33549,33287,32739],"class_list":{"0":"post-105915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-abu-salih","9":"tag-activists","10":"tag-flotilla","11":"tag-gaza","12":"tag-hadeel-abu-salih","13":"tag-humanitarian-aid","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-israeli-authorities","16":"tag-rights-group","17":"tag-saif-abu-keshek","18":"tag-thiago-avila"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116547319745859288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}