Activists Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek have been on hunger strike for almost a week, since the early hours of last Thursday when they were intercepted by the Israeli navy alongside 180 other crew members of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF). In Abu Keshek’s case, the protest has intensified, as he has also begun a thirst strike by refusing to drink water. Both remain in total isolation and are subjected to abuse and psychological torture, despite the strictly civilian nature of their mission.

In this context, the Beersheba District Court today rejected the appeal filed by the legal team of Adalah (Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel) against the extension of the detention of the two activists and leaders of the GSF. The ruling upholds the previous decision of the Magistrates’ Court to keep them detained until Sunday, May 10.

Adalah maintains that this ruling lacks legal basis and is categorically unjustifiable. As lawyers Hadeel Abu Salih and Lubna Tuma argued before the court, the state has not addressed the central issue, which is its lack of legal authority to carry out an arrest in international waters — which is tantamount to kidnapping. Under these circumstances, any legal detention would require a formal extradition process. Therefore, since there was no legal basis for the initial arrest, each additional day of detention must be considered illegal.

The gravity of the case is heightened by the fact that the activists were intercepted on a vessel flying the Italian flag, placing them under Italian jurisdiction. This action clearly violates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which stipulates that only the flag state can order the detention or arrest of a vessel, even for investigative purposes. In fact, the Italian government has condemned Israel’s actions as illegal.

Furthermore, the District Court based its decision on secret evidence to which the defense has had no access or opportunity to challenge. It also failed to adequately address the legal team’s argument that the information obtained during interrogations conducted by the Shin Bet Intelligence Agency (ISA) and the Israeli police — primarily focused on the GSF — is completely transparent and publicly available online.

According to Adalah, this ruling reveals a worrying judicial collusion, allowing unsubstantiated security-related accusations to justify prolonged interrogations and detentions. In this sense, it is part of a broader strategy aimed at criminalizing acts of solidarity and humanitarian aid directed toward the Palestinian people in Gaza.

In a press release, GSF denounced the use of baseless charges to criminalize the act of delivering humanitarian aid and opening a humanitarian maritime corridor — despite the fact that even the UN Human Rights Office holds that “showing solidarity is not a crime.” Abukeshek and Ávila were detained 600 nautical miles from Gaza in international waters; consequently, their detention constitutes a violation of international maritime law and a case of extrajudicial abduction, as any lawful transfer would have required formal extradition.

The detention of members of the international flotilla fits into a long-standing pattern of state violence, the use of administrative detention, and torture practices — measures that have been employed for decades against the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank, outside the scope of due process guarantees and a truly legitimate judicial system. In this context, supposedly “legal” proceedings — reliant on secret evidence and a lack of clear jurisdiction — replicate the very mechanisms that have served to sustain the siege on Gaza and the current situation of systemic violence.

GSF also demands the immediate and unconditional release of Saif Abukeshek and Thiago Ávila, as well as all Palestinian political prisoners. Furthermore, it notes that the escalation from a hunger strike to a dry strike serves as a cry intended to awaken the world. Saif’s thirst strike, they state, is a call “for the international community to take action to end the manufactured famine and starvation in Gaza, and to hold israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people.”

We must mobilize to demand the immediate release and safe return of Ávila and Abu Keshek and against the repression of the international movement against the genocide in Palestine.

This article was originally published in Spanish on May 6 in La Izquierda Diario.

The post Israeli Court Rules in Favor of the Continued Illegal Imprisonment of Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek appeared first on Left Voice.

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