Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish-Palestinian, and Brazilian Thiago Avila will be freed on Saturday, according to a statement from the rights group Adalah, which was representing the two men. The pair will be handed over to immigration authorities and held in custody pending their deportation. Hadeel Abu Salih, the lawyer who co-represented the pair in Israeli courts, told Al Jazeera that they are expected to be released to their home countries in the coming days. Adalah said it is closely monitoring the situation to ensure the release goes ahead.
This psychological limbo was highlighted this week by the case of Hamza Adwan, a 67-year-old detainee whose family was informed of his death on Sunday four months after he actually died in custody on September 9, 2025. Adwan, a father of nine who had already lost two sons before the war, was arrested at a checkpoint on November 12, 2024. According to his family, he was detained despite suffering from serious health issues, including heart disease, and requiring constant medical care.
A group of United States lawmakers have urged the Trump administration to secure the release of a 16-year-old Palestinian American who has been held in Israeli detention centres for eight months. In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, 27 members of the US Congress called for the release of Mohammed Ibrahim amid reports that he faces abusive conditions in detention.
The activists, including doctors and journalists, were in a group of nine boats headed to Gaza that were all seized by Israeli officials, per the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. They were in international waters just 120 nautical miles from the coast of the Strip when Israel seized the vessels and detained all of those aboard, which activists said was tantamount to kidnapping and is a "clear violation of international law." The vessels were carrying $110,000 worth of aid, including medicine and nutritional supplies, the group said.
