Israeli court extends detention of two Gaza flotilla activists
AFPAn Israeli court has extended the detention of two pro-Palestinian activists taken from a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza last Thursday, according to a rights group representing them.
Adalah said the court in Ashkelon gave police an additional six days to question Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian national Thiago Ávila.
They were among about 175 activists detained when Israeli forces intercepted 22 boats in international waters near Greece. The others were later released on the island of Crete.
Israel has said Abu Keshek is suspected of affiliation with a terrorist group and Ávila of illegal activity. Spain and Brazil have said their detention is illegal and demanded their release.
Both men have been on hunger strike for the past six days, according to Adalah.
A lawyer with the group who represented the pair at Tuesday's hearing, Hadeel Abu Salih, told reporters: "We made it clear before the court today that, first of all, we are talking about an illegal detention that must end now."
"We are talking about two foreign nationals that were arrested in international waters approximately a thousand kilometres from Gaza and brought into Israel against their will."
Abu Salih said she had also told the court that their detention conditions "amount to psychological torture".
"Both Thiago and Saif are both kept in isolation since they were moved to the custody of the Israeli prison services, and are blindfolded each time they are taken out of the cell, even when they go through a medical procedure," she added.
She described the detentions as an attempt by Israeli authorities "to criminalise any solidarity with the Palestinian people and any attempt to break the illegal siege on Gaza".
The Israeli foreign ministry has said the claims of torture are "false and baseless".
It has also insisted that the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) and the detention of dozens of participants complied with international law.
The ministry said last week that the flotilla was a "PR stunt" and that Israeli forces had acted "to prevent the breach of a lawful blockade".
The ministry said Abu Keshek was taken to Israel for questioning because he was "a leading member" of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) and that Ávila "operates with the PCPA and is suspected of illegal activity".
Israel and the US have accused the PCPA of being a front for the Palestinian armed group Hamas and designated it as a terrorist organisation.
Organisers of the GSF have said the allegations against the two men are baseless and accused Israel of acts of piracy under international law.
Brazil and Spain have also demanded the immediate release of their citizens.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said holding Ávila was "an unjustifiable action by the Israeli government, causes great concern, and must be condemned by all".
"The detention of the flotilla activists in international waters had already represented a serious affront to international law," he wrote on X on Tuesday.
Spain's foreign ministry sources also reiterated that the country "considers Abu Keshek's detention illegal".
Israel stopped the previous flotilla set up by the GSF from reaching Gaza last October, arresting and then deporting more than 470 people who were on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.
The UN has warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire despite the ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hamas six months ago, following two years of devastating war.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said at the weekend that assistance for the territory's 2.1 million population "must be scaled up by removing impediments and safeguarding neutrality of aid".
Israeli defence body Cogat, which controls Gaza's crossings, has said it is facilitating aid deliveries and that there is no limit on the amount that can enter.
