2 Gaza flotilla activists to be questioned in Israel as remainder released in Greece

Foreign Ministry says one organizer, Saif Abu Keshek is ‘suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organization,’ and the other, Thiago Ávila, is suspected of ‘illegal activity’

Israeli authorities said that two activists who led an aid flotilla bound for Gaza were being brought to Israel as suspects on Friday, after the flotilla was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off Crete earlier in the week.

The other activists who had been aboard the flotilla and were detained when Israel intercepted many of the ships, some 175 people, disembarked on the Greek island on Friday.

Escorted by Greek coastguards, the activists, the majority of them nationals of European countries, were taken in four buses to the port of Atherinolakkos, in the southeast of the island, an AFP journalist saw.

As they approached the port, the activists chanted “Free Palestine,” AFP said.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed that the detained activists had been freed, except for the two being taken to Israel.

“Saif Abu Keshek, suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organization, and Thiago Ávila, suspected of illegal activity, will be brought to Israel for questioning,” the ministry said in a tweet, without providing evidence.

Abu Keshek, a Palestinian-Spanish citizen, and Ávila, a Brazilian citizen, are members of the Global Sumud Flotilla’s steering committee, which is behind the repeated attempts to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and send in humanitarian aid.

The Israeli Navy intercepted the flotilla, comprised of 58 boats, overnight between Wednesday and Thursday off the coast of Crete, hundreds of nautical miles (over 1,000 kilometers) from Israel.

By Thursday morning, the Foreign Ministry said some 175 activists had been detained and 21 boats had been intercepted.

During past attempts to challenge the naval blockade, the Navy has intercepted the boats much closer to Gaza’s shores, which the flotilla was expected to reach over the weekend.

The Foreign Ministry said that “due to the large numbers of vessels participating in the flotilla and the risk of escalation, and the need to prevent the breach of a lawful blockade, an early action was required in accordance with international law.”

The Navy called on the remaining activists to either turn back or sail to Ashdod if they had humanitarian aid, to allow it to be inspected before entering Gaza. It warned that they, too, would be stopped if they tried to continue on their course.

Organizers said 31 of the remaining vessels have continued on their route and will attempt to “break the illegal siege of Gaza.”

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.

The Global Sumud Flotilla appealed for international support after Israel said Abu Keshek and Ávila would be taken to Israel.

“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 and Brazil have not yet commented on the detention and transfer to Israel of Abukeshek and Ávila, but they said in a joint statement with several other nations late Thursday 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 United States has backed Israeli authorities, calling the flotilla a “stunt” and saying it expects allies to deny port access, docking, departure and refueling to vessels participating in the flotilla.

A State Department spokesman said Washington was exploring imposing “consequences” on those who support the flotilla.

The war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, has led to severe shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel.

In the summer and autumn of 2025, a first voyage by the Global Sumud Flotilla across the Mediterranean towards Gaza drew worldwide attention.

The latest attempt to reach Gaza comes less than a year after Israeli authorities foiled the 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.

Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of blockade on Gaza since the Hamas terror group seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007 in a violent coup.

Israel said it was necessary to limit Hamas’s ability to smuggle in arms, a stance it has reiterated since the October 7, 2023, attack that started the Gaza war. Critics of the blockade said it amounts to collective punishment of the Strip’s roughly 2 million Palestinians.