Overview
- An Ashkelon magistrates court on Sunday extended by two days the custody of Saif Abukeshek and Thiago Ávila, who were seized from the Global Sumud flotilla after an interception in international waters near Crete.
- Both men remain in the Shikma facility in Ashkelon under interrogation without formal charges, as Israel alleges links to the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, a diaspora group under US sanctions for alleged ties to Hamas, claims their lawyers dispute on jurisdictional grounds.
- The Brazilian embassy and the legal group Adalah reported visible injuries and described accounts of beatings, blindfolding, and days of restraints, and both detainees have begun a hunger strike to protest their treatment and detention.
- While most of roughly 175 participants were escorted to Crete, the NGO Open Arms rescued 12 people from damaged flotilla boats and documented engines opened and disabled from inside, jammed communications, and several vessels sinking after the raid.
- Spain called the detention illegal and demanded Abukeshek’s release, protests erupted in Barcelona, and growing pressure from Spain and Brazil could force a clearer test of Israel’s extraterritorial claims and consular access obligations.