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SvennoJ on 11 June 2025
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Israel places two flotilla activists in solitary confinement: Lawyers

We have an update from lawyers representing the Gaza flotilla activists who were detained by Israel while trying to bring aid to the besieged enclave.

Adalah, a legal centre for Palestinians in Israel, said its lawyers have been informed that two of the detained activists were moved into solitary confinement.

Brazilian national Thiago Avila was placed in solitary at Ayalon prison due to an “ongoing hunger and thirst strike” that began this week. “He has also been treated aggressively by prison authorities, although this has not escalated to physical assault,” Adalah said.

Rima Hassan, a French citizen and member of the European Parliament, was also placed in isolation in Neve Tirza prison after writing “Free Palestine” on a wall in another prison called Givon.

“She was moved to a small, windowless cell with extremely poor hygienic conditions and has been denied access to the prison yard,” Adalah said. “The act of isolation and transfer to separate prison facilities constitutes a serious violation of the volunteer’s rights and a clear attempt to exert mental and political pressure on them.”

The rights group called on the Israeli authorities to release the activists from solitary confinement, “cease any retaliatory actions against them”, and immediately release all the detainees.

Israel to expel French Gaza aid boat activists on Thursday and Friday, France says

Israel is to expel four French activists held after security forces intercepted their Gaza-bound aid boat by the end of the week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

The four, who include Rima Hassan, a member of European Parliament from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party who is of Palestinian descent, will be deported on Thursday and Friday, the minister said on X.

Israeli forces intercepted the Madleen sailboat and its 12 crew members in international waters off the besieged Palestinian territory.


Flotilla activist’s detention aims to silence ‘voice exposing genocide’

We have an update from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which organised the ship that Israeli forces intercepted while trying to bring humanitarian supplies to Gaza. The group said Rima Hassan, one of the detained flotilla activists and a member of the European Parliament, has been removed from solitary confinement and returned to Givon prison.

“Her detention and the punitive measures taken against her remain a direct attack on a democratically elected official who has consistently advocated for justice, liberation, and an end to the illegal blockade of Gaza,” the FFC said.

Meanwhile, Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, who is also among the detained flotilla participants, remains in solitary confinement in a “small, dark, airless, and contactless cell, where Israeli authorities have threatened to detain him for seven days”, the group said.

“This is yet another attempt to punish and silence a voice exposing the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people,” Avila’s wife, Lara, said in the FFC statement.