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Israel will release activists Thiago Ávila and Saif Abukesh this Saturday before being deported

The Israeli intelligence service has informed the legal group Adalah that the two activists will be released "today" and will remain in custody while they are deported. Adalah has assured that he is closely monitoring the situation "to ensure that the release takes place, and that deportation takes place in the coming days."

Thiago Ávila y Saif Abukeshek en una foto previa a la misión de 2026

Thiago Avila and Saif Abukesh in a stock photo before the 2026 mission.

The two Global Sumud activists who remain in detention, Saif Abukesh, of Swedish and Spanish nationality, and Thiago Ávila, of Brazilian nationality, will be released and handed over to the Israeli immigration authorities this Saturday, the Shin Bet home intelligence service has informed the Adalah law group.

"Today (they are expected to leave) and will be in custody pending deportation," Adalah said in a statement. Adalah has ensured that he is closely monitoring the situation to ensure that "release takes place, and deportation takes place in the next few days."

Adalah has stressed that Avila and Abukesh have been "illegally detained" by Israel for more than a week since they were abducted by the Israeli Navy in international waters on 30 April, in violation of international law.

In addition to long interrogations in which there are no charges against them, "during their detention they have been in complete isolation and in conditions of punishment, even though their mission was entirely civilian," Adalah reports in the text. The two activists have also been on hunger strike since their arrest, and Abukesh has been on dry strike since Tuesday night. 

The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has advanced this morning that the Abukeshas will be deported from the Egyptian Taba Pass and has assured that the Ministry is working hard to ensure that, as soon as it leaves Israeli territory, the activist can return to Spain to meet his family "as soon as possible".

The UN has called on Israel to release the two activists "immediately and unconditionally" and has stressed that it is not a crime to show solidarity or to try to bring humanitarian aid to the citizens of Gaza, which is the objective of such fleets, which have been repeated for years.

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