Israel released the two detainees from the Gaza Flotilla this Sunday, Catalan-Palestinian Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian Thiago Ávila, after "six brutal days," according to activists, detained in a prison in the south of the country. Abukeshek arrived this afternoon at El Prat airport, where he was received by family, friends, and fellow activists, and Ávila will fly from Egypt to Brazil. The Israeli navy arrested the two members of the civilian humanitarian mission last week, when the Israeli army stormed about twenty boats of the initiative in international waters.

After nine days detained by Israel, the Catalan-Palestinian Saif Abukeshek and the Brazilian Thiago Ávila, activists from the Flotilla heading to Gaza, will be released and expelled from the country. The Israeli army intercepted both of them in international waters while participating in a mission aimed at breaking the blockade in the Strip.

The Italian Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has called this Friday from Barcelona for an investigation into the role of the Greek authorities in the Israeli assault on the Global Sumud Flotilla last week. "How is it possible that the Greek authorities, instead of intervening to prevent Israel from committing a crime, participated in the operation? They picked up all participants except two," she said, referring to Palestinian-Catalan Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian Thiago Ávila, who are detained and prosecuted in Israel and who have reported torture through their lawyers.

The Gaza Flotilla sails again. Several boats set sail this Friday from Crete after a week ago about twenty ships were assaulted by Israel in international waters. The civil humanitarian mission thus resumes its course to Gaza. The next stop will be Turkey, where it will make a technical stop and more boats will join. It is expected that a total of more than 30 ships will sail.

Cooperation between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has taken a qualitative leap. What began with Tel Aviv would also have sent an advanced surveillance system known as Spectro to help Abu Dhabi detect Iranian drones at a distance of up to twenty kilometers. According to a source cited by the same newspaper, Israel also sent other unspecified weapons systems. "It is not a minor deployment on the ground," he stated. Although many of these pieces of equipment would be prototypes, the most relevant thing is that these are the first documented cases of direct military cooperation between the two countries.These revelations came after the American outlet Axios reported that Israel had deployed an Iron Dome battery in the Emirates and sent several dozen soldiers to operate it. According to this outlet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered its deployment after a conversation with Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed. Since the start of the war, Israeli and Emirati authorities have admitted close coordination in the military and political spheres.The fact that Israel has sent a version of its laser system reinforces the idea that normalization between the two countries, following the Abraham Accords, is no longer just political or economic, but is beginning to crystallize into an emerging regional security architecture. All this points to an unprecedented level of trust between the Israeli state and a Gulf monarchy.“The relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates are very strong”, Neil Quilliam, a researcher for the Middle East and North Africa program at the international analysis center Chatham House, explains to ARA. “The current conflict with Iran has shown how strong the ties between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi are, and all indications are that they will be strengthened in this new security paradigm that is crossing the region”.Iran, the shared threat

Both Israel and the United Arab Emirates perceive Tehran as a threat, especially after the latest round of confrontations. Between February 28 and April 8, Iran launched approximately 550 missiles and over 2,200 drones, making the Emirates the most attacked country in the region, according to the Emirati Ministry of Defense. Although most of the projectiles were intercepted, some managed to hit and cause damage, such as the impacts on the Al Taweelah aluminum plant in Abu Dhabi.“Cooperation indicates that the Emirates and Israel share the same perception of regional threat: Iran represents a constant and real danger to the well-being of both states and the region as a whole”, describes the expert. “Their priority is to face this threat head-on. In contrast, other Gulf countries, although very annoyed with Iran, believe that regional security can only be guaranteed by reaching some kind of accommodation with Tehran, rather than confronting it militarily”, adds Quilliam. Along these lines, Abu Dhabi has made it clear that it wants to deepen ties with Israel and the United States, has criticized the response of other Arab actors to Iran, and has shown that the region is being reconfigured.According to the expert, we are already seeing a regional realignment in which Israel and the Emirates are working closely together, while Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan are drawing closer to manage their interests; and Oman and Qatar are intensifying their mediation efforts to try to end the war.Break with Saudi Arabia

In this context, the Emirates' decision to leave OPEC and OPEC+, the organizations of oil-producing countries that coordinate crude production and prices globally, also evidences the shift in the region. This departure has broken with years of coordination with Saudi Arabia, the other major leader in the Gulf. Now this divergence is also becoming visible in the relationship with Israel: while the Emirates have opted decisively for normalization and cooperation in security matters, Saudi Arabia maintains a more cautious position, conditioned by internal and religious factors that raise the cost of a formal approach.The result is a Middle East in transformation, where alliances are no longer defined solely by historical affinities, but also by shared perceptions of threat and shared energy and economic interests.

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An Israeli court has extended until Sunday the detention of the two leaders of the Global Flotilla Sumud, the Catalan-Palestinian Saif Abukeshek and the Brazilian Thiago Ávila, who have been in a prison facility since they were captured in international waters in Wednesday's assault on the civilian humanitarian mission against the Gaza blockade. 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 indictment. The Israeli government accuses them of terrorism, and they are detained in Shikma prison, on a hunger strike for the seventh day.

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In an Israel marked by months of war with no end in sight, the country will hold elections this fall, the first in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face the polls since the Palestinian attacks of October 7, 2023. The prospect that, despite his weariness, he may win again has led the opposition to unite against him. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, two of the prime minister's main rivals, have announced a coalition to unseat him after 25 years of almost uninterrupted dominance of Israeli politics. The alliance responds to a clear political logic: the two former prime ministers are trying to rebuild a broad central space capable of attracting voters from both the moderate right and the center. Bennett, a former army commander and a reference for the ultranationalist right, has gained weight as a credible figure on security matters – a key factor in full regional confrontation –, while Lapid, leader of liberal centrism and a former television presenter, maintains strength in the urban and secular vote. However, the union has generated doubts regarding its political viability and the power to be a real alternative to Netanyahu.The most recent poll by the Israeli media Walla places the new candidacy, baptized as Junts (Beyahad in Hebrew), around 27 seats, one less than Netanyahu's Likud, which would remain the leading force with about 28 seats. Even more decisive is the bloc's configuration. Parties opposed to Netanyahu are around 59 seats, below the 61 needed for a parliamentary majority. Even in favorable scenarios, the opposition bloc needs the support of other parties. The parties representing Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, who make up 20% of Israel's population, would maintain about a dozen seats, but Lapid and Bennett have ruled out forming a coalition with them.

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The open negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, driven by American pressure after the new military escalation – which has left more than 2,500 dead in Lebanon–, have reactivated a structural fracture that Beirut has never managed to resolve: Who decides on war and peace in the country? The answer, today as yesterday, remains ambiguous.

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Israel released most of the participants of the Flotilla this Friday that the army detained in Wednesday's assault,but is holding two spokespeople for the movement: the Palestinian-Catalan Saif Abukeshek and the Brazilian Thiago Ávila. Around 170 sailors, including about twenty Catalans, have been handed over to Greek authorities and have disembarked on the island of Crete, but the two spokespeople remain detained on the Israeli frigate where they were transferred after the assault. Benjamin Netanyahu's government has said they will be transferred to Israel for processing.

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Ukraine has threatened to sanction Israeli individuals and companies that buy grain produced in Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia. According to Volodymyr Zelensky in a message on X this Tuesday, the Ukrainian government is working on a package of sanctions for people who transport and buy grain that Kyiv considers "stolen by Russia". "In any normal country, the purchase of stolen goods is an act that entails legal responsibility," the Ukrainian leader retorted.

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Mohamed Hijazi says it's like being buried alive. On April 17, in the early morning, an unexpected call changed his life forever. It was his cousin. He gave him the worst news: his little sister, his three nephews, and his brother-in-law were among the nineteen victims rescued from under the rubble of the Hijazi building, opposite the Tyre promenade. There were only a few minutes left until the ten-day ceasefire came into effect when Israeli planes bombed the building. The explosion tore through the neighborhood at the exact moment the silence was supposed to begin. The truce arrived amidst screams, cries, and rage.

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Last October, Donald Trump said he was considering asking Israel for the release of Marwan Barghouti, the most popular Palestinian to succeed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Barghouti has been imprisoned for the last 24 years of his life, convicted by a military court for ordering the deaths of five Israelis during the Second Intifada. All these years in prison have only increased his popularity, even though he has spent most of his time in isolation. In the last prisoner exchange, just a few months ago, Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out his release because he considers him too great a symbol with a future on the Palestinian political scene.

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As international attention continues to be focused on tensions with Iran, the Israeli government has taken a further step in another key direction: occupation. With little media fanfare, it has approved a plan of 307 million euros to strengthen the Israeli presence in settlements in the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory that the international community continues to consider occupied by Israel.The project, planned for the period 2026-2030, aims to turn Katzrin, an Israeli settlement in the west, into "the first city of the Golan," in the words of Ze'ev Elkin, a member of the Ministry of Finance. According to various Israeli media, the plan includes investments in infrastructure, public services —such as hospitals and veterinary centers—, universities, and housing. All with a clear objective: to attract at least 3,000 Israeli families to the territory.The announcement came after a meeting in Jerusalem between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and local Golan leaders, such as Yehuda Dua and Uri Kellner. The message was unequivocal: the government not only maintains its commitment to settlements but wants to intensify it. On numerous occasions, Netanyahu has stated that the Golan will remain under Israeli control, a statement that clashes with international law. The Golan Heights have been recognized as territory occupied by Israel since 1967, after the Six-Day War, and were formally annexed in 1981."As the logic of Israel's colonial project is to obtain the land without the indigenous population, the Golan Heights are considered a successful model of expropriation and expansion, unlike the West Bank and Gaza," explains to ARA Neve Gordon, an Israeli academic specializing in politics, human rights, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a professor at Queen Mary University of London.According to him, the key lies in 1967: "The ethnic cleansing was almost complete and, as a result, there has been no sustained resistance to Israeli rule. About 130,000 Syrians fled and could not return, and only about 5,000 remained. This allowed the Golan to be integrated into both domestic law and the Israeli public imagination." The result is that, today, for a large majority of Israeli Jews —more than 90%, according to Gordon— the Golan is already part of Israel. This is a clear contrast with the West Bank, where the Palestinian presence has prevented full integration. A pattern of annexation

The expansion of settlements in the Golan is not an exception, but part of a pattern. The settlement policy deployed there presents clear parallels with what has been happening for decades in the West Bank: a combination of civilian presence and state support to consolidate control over disputed territories, always under the umbrella of security.In the West Bank, more than 700,000 Israeli settlers live today in settlements scattered throughout the territory. And the pace does not stop. In recent weeks, the government has approved 34 new settlements, in a decision that, according to the Israeli organization Peace Now, was made "secretly".Israeli media, such as Channel 24 or the newspaper Haaretz, have described the decision as the largest number of settlements ever approved in a single government session. According to this information, nine of the 34 approved settlements are existing outposts (settlements that are illegal even under Israeli law, as they are built without government authorization) which will now be retroactively legalized, while the rest have not yet been built. In total, the plan includes 20 new settlements, nine outposts, two expansions, and three nuclei that will become independent from existing settlements. Settlements and outposts vary in size, and can range from a single dwelling to multi-story building complexes.“Outposts are like settlements: an instrument of expropriation and expansion —describes Gordon—. Outposts, like settlements, are illegal under international law, but they were introduced just over two decades ago, after a US-led settlement freeze, and have ended up functioning as a tool to legitimize formal settlements: they are presented as their illegal version, when in reality both are,” he adds.The phenomenon, far from being isolated, is part of a sustained policy over time. Since 1967, settlements have been a central piece of Israeli strategy, but under Netanyahu's governments their expansion has accelerated. Israeli organizations such as ACLED or B’Tselem and analysis centers such as Chatham House warn of a simultaneous increase in settlements, land confiscations, and settler violence, especially since the start of the offensive in Gaza.Since the arrival of the current government, 103 new settlements have been approved, adding to the 127 already existing. If the legalization of outposts is added, the total in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has risen from 141 in 2022 to 210 currently, according to data cited by Al-Jazeera. In parallel, the government has allocated 119 million euros to the Ministry of Settlements and National Missions, the body responsible for authorizing these implantations.

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Finally, the second round of talks between the United States and Iran seems to have been unlocked. Both Washington and Tehran announced this Friday that they are sending delegations to Islamabad. However, after a week of announcements and subsequent denials, and amid an escalation of assaults and interceptions of ships in Hormuz, skepticism still predominates about the fruits that dialogue between the two parties may yield. The few details about when and how this second round of negotiations may occur add uncertainty to the situation.

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There are lines that precede their own existence. In southern Lebanon, one of them does not appear on any map, has not been validated by any agreement, nor recognized by the United Nations. However, it already imposes its logic on the ground, on displacements, and on destruction. The Israelis call it the "yellow line". And, as often happens in this region, what is born as a provisional military device tends to become permanent.

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In an infrequent reaction, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized and issued a condemnation "with all his might." A few hours earlier, his Foreign Minister had done so, admitting that the act had been "serious and shameful." And both have assured that "harsh" and "strict" disciplinary measures will be taken against the perpetrator. What big thing happened? Well, the photo of an Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon hitting the head of a crucified Jesus Christ with a hammer, lying upside down after being taken down from the cross, an image that has caused the usual tearing of clothes on social media.

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Jean-Pierre Filiu is one of the foremost experts on the Arab world in Europe. A former French diplomat, Arabist and historian, and professor at Sciences Po, he visited Barcelona at the invitation of the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed). He was one of the few European analysts to enter Gaza since October 7, 2023, and recounts his experience in A Historian in Gaza, which the publishing house La Cebra has just released in Spanish.

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As if it were a delayed Christmas present, last December 26 Israel recognized Somaliland, a territory in East Africa, as an independent state. It was what Somaliland had pursued for more than three decades, since it separated Financial Times in mid-March. in mid-March the president of Somaliland, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi.Somaliland is a few kilometers from Yemen, where the Houthis, a Shiite group opposed to Israel and supported by Iran in the so-called Axis of Resistance, operate. In statements to Bloomberg, two Somaliland officials confirmed the rumors: the territory will allow Israel to gather information about the Houthis and carry out operations against them. A local politician linked to the presidency did not rule out, in the same article, that Israel could establish a base there. This position on the Red Sea is also key due to the proximity of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the entry point for ships heading for the Suez Canal. Any blockade of this point would force ships sailing between Asia and Europe to go around southern Africa, which would contribute to inflation in Europe. As we have seen in the Strait of Hormuz, the power gained from controlling such areas is invaluable. Israel is making a move against its enemies, and Somaliland finally has the recognition it needed. In return, it risks the element that has made it an exception: peace.

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A few days ago, it was done by letter, also signed by Ireland and Slovenia, and next Tuesday the Spanish government will formally request that the European Union break its association agreement with Israel. This was announced by the president of the executive, Pedro Sánchez, from Andalusia, where he participated in an electoral event with the socialist candidate, María Jesús Montero. According to Sánchez, Benjamin Netanyahu's government cannot continue to be a preferred partner of the EU because it "is violating international law" and, therefore, "the principles and values of the EU". It will be at the meeting of Foreign Affairs ministers where the Spanish government's request will be formalized.

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The residents of Bages have organized this weekend to demand that the company ICL –Israel Chemicals Limited– leave the territory. A thousand people spent the night in a camp in Callús as part of a mobilization driven by Revoltes de la Terra to denounce the environmental and social impact of this company that has been exploiting the region's salt mines since 1998. The intention is to stay for the entire weekend.

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