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Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - JERUSALEM — An Israeli court has extended the detention of two pro-Palestinian activists who were abducted by Israeli authorities from a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza last Thursday, according to a rights group representing them.
The Ashkelon Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday granted the Israeli government's request to extend the detention of Saif Abu Keshek from Spain and Brazilian Thiago Avila until Sunday, May 10, Miriam Azem, the international advocacy coordinator at Adalah confirmed.
Adalah said the court gave police an additional six days to question them. Abu Keshek and Ávila 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.
The extension of the activists’ detention was based on “secret evidence” that Abu Keshek, Avila and their lawyers were not permitted to review, Adalah said.
“Crucially, the court granted the full six-day extension requested by the state without imposing any limitations or judicial constraints on the interrogation period,” the group’s statement read.
No charges have been filed against the two men, but Abu Keshek and Avila face several accusations, including affiliation with a “terrorist organisation and contact with foreign agents”, Adalah said earlier.
Adalah lawyers Hadeel Abu Salih and Lubna Tuma, representing the two activists at Tuesday's hearing, have argued that the allegations against them are “baseless” and have no “legal grounds”.
"We made it clear before the court today that, first of all, we are talking about an illegal detention that must end now," They told reporters.
"We are talking about two foreign nationals that were arrested in international waters approximately a thousand kilometers from Gaza and brought into Israel against their will.
“Because the activists were abducted over 1,000 kilometers away from Gaza and are not Israeli citizens, Israeli domestic law does not apply to them,” said the lawyers.
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 criminalize any solidarity with the Palestinian people and any attempt to break the illegal siege on Gaza".
Adilah said both activists remain in “total isolation, subjected to 24/7 high-intensity lighting in their cells and kept blindfolded whenever they are moved, including during medical examinations”.
The organization said the activists are continuing their hunger strike, consuming only water since their abduction on April 30.
The flotilla’s organizers also demanded the release of Abu Keshek and Avila, urging the international community to take action.
“The Zionist regime has, once again, extended the illegal detention of our friends: Saif Abukeshek and Thiago Avila,” the group said on X.
“Our organizers have been illegally kidnapped in international waters, subjected to beatings and torture in Greek territorial waters, and forcefully brought against their will to occupied Palestine, where they have been subjected to interrogations, death threats, sleep deprivation and medical neglect.”
On Saturday, Adalah lawyers had visited the activists at Shikma Prison in Ashkelon, where they gave testimony of “severe physical abuse amounting to torture”.
The Israeli foreign ministry has said the claims of torture are "false and baseless".
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 organization.
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".
The Global Sumud Flotilla’s first voyage to Gaza in August and September drew worldwide attention before Israeli forces intercepted the boats off the coasts of Egypt and Gaza in early October.
Crew members, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, were arrested and expelled by Israeli forces.
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".
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