The boat, carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, was seized in international waters and all activists on board were abducted and forcibly taken to Israel.
Two of the 21 activists who were aboard the seized Gaza aid ship Handala were interrogated by Israeli police, according to lawyers from an Israeli legal center.
“Huwaida Arraf and Bob Suberi, both dual U.S.–Israeli nationals, were interrogated by Israeli police, released from custody, and are now with Adalah’s legal team,” the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said in a statement on Sunday night.
https://t.co/uD4r5od3OP
Since this morning, hearings have been taking place at Givon Prison for several activists unlawfully detained after being aboard the @GazaFFlotilla ship ‘Handala’. A tribunal is reviewing the custody orders issued against them, pending their deportation.…— Adalah (@AdalahEnglish) July 28, 2025
The boat, carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, was seized in international waters and all activists on board were abducted and forcibly taken to Israel.
The activists were “presented with two options: either agree to so-called “voluntary deportation,” or remain in detention and appear before a tribunal, to have their continued detention pending deportation reviewed.”
Detention Tribunal
Hearings by the Detention Review Tribunal were scheduled to take place at the Givon Prison in Ramleh on Monday, regarding the detention of several” international activists who refused to sign deportation orders, the center said.
“Israel is handling the custody of the volunteers as though they had entered the country illegally, even though they were forcibly taken from international waters and brought into Israel against their will,” the center stated. “The detention hearings at the Givon facility regularly grant Israeli authorities broad discretion to continue holding activists—even without clear legal grounds—until deportation.”
Adalah Update | 27 July 2025, 8 PM Jerusalem time
Adalah lawyers have met with 17 of the 21 detained activists, who are in relatively stable condition. Israel is treating them as if they entered illegally, despite abducting them from international waters. Detainees were told to… pic.twitter.com/65bDBX5Rug— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) July 27, 2025
The activists scheduled to appear before the tribunal on Monday were: Braedon Peluso (United States), Robert Martin (Australia), Tania (Tan) Safi (Australia), Justine Kempf (France), Emma Fourreau (France – Sweden), Antonio La Picirella (Italy), Christian Smalls (United States), Chloé Fiona Ludden (United Kingdom – France), Sergio Toribio Sanchez (Spain), Vigdis Bjorvand (Norway), Hatem Aouini (Tunisia) and Santiago González Vallejo (Spain), the center noted.
It added that most of the activists “remain on an open-ended hunger strike to protest their forced detention.”
‘Violation of Intl Law’
Adalah stressed that “the continued detention of these civilian activists, who were forcibly taken from international waters, constitutes a grave violation of international law,” adding that it would “demand their immediate release before the tribunal today.”
🇦🇺Letter from ‘Australians’ Tan & Robert🇦🇺
From less than 100 nautical miles off Gaza’s coast, Tan (@taniasafi) and Robert (@Robert_Martin72) launched a hunger strike aboard the #Handala. They participated in this action because the Australian government is complicit in… pic.twitter.com/LuCbWazTWv
— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) July 28, 2025
Activists who are expected to be deported “in the coming hours” or were already deported are: Antonio Mazzeo (Italy), Gabriel Cathala (France), Jacob Berger (United States), Waad Al Musa (United States – Iraq) and Mohamed El Bakkali (Morocco).
It was “unclear” whether Ange Sahuquet (France) and Dr. Frank Romano (United States–France) “will be deported immediately or appear before the tribunal,” Adalah stated.
Hunger Strike
In June 2025, the tribunal upheld custody orders for eight activists from the earlier Freedom Flotilla vessel, the Madleen, “rejecting legal arguments that their detention lacked jurisdiction because they had been apprehended in international waters and in violation of international law,” the center said.
In an interview with Al Jazeera from Jaffa, Huwaida Arraf, the lawyer and activist who was on board the boat reportedly said she refused to sign a pledge to the Israeli authorities not to re-enter Gaza.
She also reportedly told Anadolu that the Israeli forces “were heavily armed and also armed with numerous cameras, trying to spread propaganda that they were treating us kindly and providing us with water and food.”
Handala Ship Seized and Taken to Ashdod, International Outcry Follows
“However, we refused to do so out of solidarity with the starving Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” Arraf added.
Among the activists on board the Handala were lawmakers, medics, and journalists.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, according to The Times of Israel, that the vessel was “stopped” from “illegally entering the maritime zone of the coast of Gaza.”
Ongoing Blockade
The aid ship, launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), set sail from Italy in an attempt to break Israel’s illegal siege on the enclave, which has led to the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians due to starvation and malnutrition.
In recent months, Israel has intercepted other Gaza-bound aid ships in international waters.
22 Months of Complicity: Why The Media Suddenly Changed Its Mind On Gaza
In June, Israeli forces seized the Madleen, detaining 12 international activists, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and French Member of European Parliament Rima Hassan. A month earlier, the MV Conscience was attacked by drones near Malta.
Since March 2, Israel shut down all crossings in to Gaza, blocking the entry of aid convoys and ignoring international calls to reopen them.
(PC, Anadolu, AJA)
The Israeli Nazis are savages. They make the German Nazis, and Ukrainian Banderites look like choir boys. If they all die tomorrow, no one will miss them.