{"id":95575,"date":"2026-05-03T12:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T12:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/95575\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T12:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T12:49:08","slug":"israel-court-extends-detention-of-gaza-flotilla-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/95575\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Court Extends Detention of Gaza Flotilla Activists"},"content":{"rendered":"

ASHKELON, Israel, May 3 (Reuters) – An Israeli court \u2060has \u2060extended by two days the \u2060detention of two activists arrested aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla that \u200bwas intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters near Greece, their lawyer said on \u200cSunday.<\/p>\n

Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish \u200cnational, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were detained by Israeli authorities late on Wednesday \u2060and \u2060brought to Israel, while more than 100 other pro-Palestinian activists aboard \u200bthe boats were taken to the Greek island of Crete.<\/p>\n

A court spokesperson confirmed that their remand had been extended until May 5.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The governments of Spain and Brazil issued a \u200bjoint statement on Friday calling their detention illegal.<\/p>\n

The activists were part of a \u2060second \u2060Global Sumud flotilla, launched in \u2060an \u200battempt to break Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian assistance. The ships had \u200bset sail from Barcelona \u2060on April 12.<\/p>\n

Israeli authorities requested a four-day extension of their arrest on suspicion of offences that include assisting the enemy during wartime, contact with a foreign agent, membership in and providing services to a terrorist organisation, and the transfer of \u2060property for a terrorist organisation, said rights group Adalah, which is assisting \u2060in the activists’ defence.<\/p>\n

Hadeel Abu Salih, the men’s attorney, said that the two deny the allegations. Their arrest was unlawful due to a lack of jurisdiction, she told Reuters at the Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court after the hearing, adding that the mission was meant to provide aid to civilians in Gaza, not to any militant group.<\/p>\n

Abu Salih said that Abu Keshek and Avila were subjected to violence en route to Israel and \u2060kept handcuffed and blindfolded until Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Israel’s foreign ministry had on Thursday called the flotilla organisers “professional provocateurs”.<\/p>\n

“Israel will not allow the breach of the lawful \u200bnaval blockade on Gaza,” it said.<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Rami Amichay; Writing by \u200bMaayan Lubell; Editing by Joe Bavier)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.<\/p>\n

Photos You Should See \u2013 April 2026<\/p>\n

\"Dancers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASHKELON, Israel, May 3 (Reuters) – An Israeli court \u2060has \u2060extended by two days the \u2060detention of two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4059,1393,54,1092,307,37,49,351,1218,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-95575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-brazil","9":"tag-collections-world","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-greece","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-middle-east","15":"tag-reuters","16":"tag-spain","17":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116510730648306378","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95575","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=95575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}