BARCELONA – Israeli authorities say they are taking two activists who led an aid flotilla bound for Gaza — and who were captured by Israel in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea — to Israel for questioning.
The activists, Palestinian-Spanish citizen Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian citizen Thiago Ávila, were among dozens of activists intercepted by the Israeli navy off the coast of Crete. They are members the Global Sumud Flotilla’s steering committee, whose mission was to break Israel’s naval blockade and bring some humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.
In all, some 20 boats and 175 activists were intercepted by the Israeli navy. Activists said Israeli forces stormed their vessels, smashed engines and detained some of those onboard. The incident occurred hundreds of miles (kilometers) from Gaza and Israel overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
Israeli officials said they needed to take early action against the flotilla before it reached Israeli waters because of the high number of boats involved.
On Friday the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on X that it was taking the two activists to Israel for questioning, and that Abukeshek was “suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organization” and Ávila was “suspected of illegal activity,” without providing evidence.
The Global Sumud Flotilla appealed for international support. “We demand that all governments do all they can to pressure the Israeli regime to release all the illegal abductees,” the group said Friday.
Spain’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday the Spanish government condemned the detention of Abukeshek, and demanded “his immediate release.”
“The Spanish embassies and consulates in Greece and Israel are mobilized to provide full protection to the Spanish citizen as soon as he arrives in Israeli territory, as well as to all other affected Spaniards,” the Spanish foreign ministry’s statement added.
The rest of the flotilla participants of various nationalities were released in Crete. Organizers on Friday said Israeli authorities had denied them food and water and they were “forced to sleep on floors that were deliberately and repeatedly flooded.”
When Israeli forces proceeded to take Abukeshek and Ávila away, the group resisted and were met with “sheer violence,” flotilla organizers said in a statement Friday.
“Participants were punched, kicked and dragged across the deck with their hands bound behind their backs. They suffered broken noses, cracked ribs and bloody beatings. Shots were even fired at them in the chaos,” the statement said.
Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to the accusations. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had said Thursday that activists “taken off the vessels were taken off unharmed.”
Of the 53 vessels that had been sailing prior to the interception, 31 reached safe waters and would continue their attempts to “break the illegal siege of Gaza,” organizers said.
The flotilla set sail earlier this month from Barcelona, Spain. Organizers have said more than 70 boats and 1,000 people from around the world would be participating, with more vessels joining the original boats as the flotilla sailed east across the Mediterranean.
The Greek foreign ministry said Thursday that it had asked Israel to withdraw its ships from the area and had offered its “good services” for the activists to disembark in Greece and be repatriated.
Protests in solidarity with the flotilla erupted across several capitals including in Rome, Athens and Istanbul.
Brazil has not yet commented on the detention and transfer to Israel of its citizen, Ávila, but in a joint statement with Spain and several other nations late Thursday it said that Israel’s interception of the flotilla and detention of the activists in international waters “constitute flagrant violations of international law and international humanitarian law.”
The flotilla’s latest attempt to reach Gaza comes less than a year after Israeli authorities foiled a previous effort by the group. That attempt involved about 50 vessels and around 500 activists, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, and several lawmakers.
Israel arrested, detained and later deported the participants, including Ávila, who claimed Israeli authorities abused them while in detention. Israeli authorities denied the accusations.
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