The around 175 activists of the Sumud Global Flotilla detained by Israel in international waters are already in Greek territory, confirmed the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which announced that two of them – a Brazilian and a Palestinian – will be taken to Israel for “interrogation.”
The Spanish Foreign Ministry has confirmed that all its nationals are already on Greek soil. The Spanish consul in Athens has traveled to Crete to await the arrival of the thirty Spanish members, who are at the naval base where they have been disembarked and will be transferred to the Heraklion airport, where the diplomat is already located, as Foreign sources have confirmed to EFE.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the sources have indicated, is in contact with the Greek authorities “at all levels” in relation to this episode.
In a message on its social networks, Israel’s Foreign Affairs reported shortly before, this Friday, its decision to transfer to Israeli territory the Palestinian Saif Abu Keshek as “suspected of belonging to a terrorist organization” and the Brazilian Thiago Ávila as “suspected of illegal activities”, without specifying the charges.
“All the Flotilla activists are now in Greece, except Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Ávila,” Foreign sources later said about the around 175 people detained on Thursday by Israeli forces when they were heading towards Gaza on a humanitarian mission.
Ávila, who has participated in other flotillas to Gaza, was detained at the Buenos Aires airport in April after being denied entry to Argentina – an ally of Israel – where he was preparing to announce the local delegation of the Sumud Global Flotilla.
The Brazilian is one of the coordinators of the Sumud Global Flotilla to Gaza and recently participated in the Our America Convoy to Cuba.
Abu Keshek is also coordinator of the Flotilla and in an interview with Middle East Eye in September 2025 he defended the strategy of non-violence in light of information that Israel planned to declare its activists terrorists.
Coinciding with the last Sumud Global Flotilla that tried unsuccessfully to reach Gaza, Israeli Foreign Affairs published a message that month in which it described Abu Keshek as a “Hamas operative” and stated that he owned a company in Spain that owned ships that participated in the mission.
The blockade
The Israeli Army intercepted this Thursday morning 22 of the 58 ships of the Flotilla about 100 kilometers west of the Greek island of Crete, in international waters, and transferred the activists to an Israeli ship.
This Friday, 33 of the boats participating in it are sailing along the southern coast of Crete in the direction of the Gaza Strip, according to the organization’s boat locator, but their destination is unknown for now.
The Greek Foreign Ministry confirmed that it was coordinating with the Israeli authorities for the safe disembarkation of the activists in Greece.
A delegation from the Greek Ministry went last night to the arrival point of the activists, which has not been revealed, to coordinate actions and cooperate with foreign consular authorities.
The Spanish position
For his part, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has issued a message on his social networks in which he denounces that “Israel once again violates international legality by attacking a civil flotilla in waters that do not belong to it.”
“Our Government is doing everything necessary to protect and assist the detained Spaniards. But that is not enough. The EU has to suspend the association agreement NOW and demand that Netanyahu comply with the law of our seas,” he adds.
Yesterday, the Ministry “urgently” summoned the chargé d’affaires of the Israeli embassy in Spain, the head of the mission, to convey its “strongest condemnation for the arrest of the members of the Sumud Global Flotilla, which was detained off the coast of Greece with about 175 activists from different nationalities, including thirty Spaniards, of whom about 20 reside in Catalonia.
This new flotilla, with 58 vessels, set sail from Barcelona on April 15 with the aim of breaking the blockade suffered by the Gaza Strip and delivering humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population.
