An Israeli court decides today whether to extend the detention of the leaders of the Gaza Flotilla

BarcelonaAn Israeli court will decide this Tuesday whether to extend the detention of the two leaders of the Global Sumud Flotilla, the Catalan-Palestinian Saif Abukeshek and the Brazilian Thiago Ávila, who have been in a detention center since they were captured in international waters during Wednesday's assault on the civilian humanitarian mission against the blockade of Gaza.The court in the coastal city of Ashkelon, where they are being held, ruled on Sunday that the prosecution had two more days to present the formal charges. The Israeli government accuses them of terrorism and they are detained in Shikma prison, on a hunger strike for the seventh day. The court must rule before noon on whether to extend the detention again or release the activists.

On Monday, the lawyers for Abukeshek and Ávila, from the Adalah Legal Center, visited them in prison and warned of "the psychological abuse and mistreatment" to which they are subjected. The Brazilian informed them that he had been subjected to repeated interrogations lasting more than eight hours in which he had been threatened with death or a long sentence. The lawyers also reported that both are in isolation cells with intense lighting 24 hours a day, a "practice of the Israeli prison services designed to induce sleep deprivation and sensory disorientation," and that they had been kept blindfolded during medical visits. Ávila also stated that in his cell they keep him at an "extremely low" temperature.

In his first testimony before the court on Sunday, the Brazilian activist stated that he had been subjected to extreme violence during the assault and seizure operation of the boats, where he was "dragged along the ground face down and brutally beaten by soldiers of the Israeli navy to the point of losing consciousness on two occasions". In the images of the accused in court, marks of blows could be seen on his face. The rest of the 181 Flotilla activists who were captured on the high seas, in the surprise intervention of the Israeli navy more than a thousand kilometers from its borders, near the Greek island of Crete, have also reported beatings and mistreatment when their ships were boarded and they were forcibly transferred to an Israeli frigate, where they were for 40 hours until they were handed over to the Greek authorities. About thirty crew members requested medical attention at the hospital in Crete and have denounced the complicity of Greece and the European Union in the military operation, contrary to international law and maritime law.

The lawyers for Adalah, in fact, recall that "there is no legal basis" for the extraterritorial detention of foreign citizens in international waters and demand the immediate and unconditional release of the two detained activists. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who will appear on Thursday in Congress to explain his management of the case, has also said that "no Israeli agent has any jurisdiction in international waters": "What is next? [..] This is not how a state that calls itself democratic acts", he said in an interview this Tuesday on TVE, from where he denounced what he described as the "completely illegal detention" and without proof of Abukeshek, and demanded his "immediate release": "I insist, there is no proof".

In parallel to the sight of the two arrested, now the rest of the Flotilla is considering whether to continue with the thirty boats that were not intercepted in the Israeli military operation, including those that were to join in Greece and Turkey. Since Friday, thousands of people around the world have organized protests for the assault on the Flotilla and to demand the release of the detainees. In Madrid, Barcelona, Athens, Rome, and Istanbul, emergency rallies were held. At least 11 states, including Spain and Brazil, as well as the UN and several NGOs, have condemned Israel's attack on the humanitarian convoy and have demanded the release of Abukeshek and Ávila from the Israeli authorities.

Colau denounces Israel for the 2025 Flotilla assault

For their part, the former mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau will testify this Tuesday before the National Court along with other activists for the "aggressions" she suffered on board the Flotilla that tried to reach Gaza in the fall and which was also intercepted by Israel. Colau, like the Barcelona councilor from ERC Jordi Coronas, was detained and held, along with the rest of the activists, in an Israeli prison, and reported abuses and mistreatment. Now they are filing a lawsuit against the State of Israel for these abuses.