Gaza Flotilla ‘Handala’: Deportation hearings expected for 13 activists
The boat set out from Sicily earlier this month, with the activists and some humanitarian aid supplies. The vessel attempted to break through Israel’s maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip.
The 13 pro-Palestinian activists who were detained off the Handala ship are scheduled Monday for hearings before the Detention Review Tribunal and the Givon Prison in Ramle, the Adalah legal center said, whose lawyers are representing the activists.
The boat set out from Sicily earlier this month, with the activists and some humanitarian aid supplies. The vessel attempted to break through Israel’s maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Just a few weeks ago, the Israel Navy intercepted a different vessel, the Madleen, with identical goals, also dispatched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
The Handalacarried 19 activists, including parliamentarians and journalists. Those scheduled for the Monday hearings are: Braedon Peluso and Christian Smalls from the US, Robert Martin and Tania (Tan) Safi from Australia, Justine Kempf from France, Emma Fourreau from France and Sweden, Antonio La Picirella from Italy, Chloé Fiona Ludden from the United Kingdom and France, Sergio Toribio Sanchez and Santiago González Vallejo from Spain, Vigdis Bjorvand from Norway, and Hatem Aouini from Tunisia.
The activists who have already been deported, or are expected to be within the next few hours, are: Antonio Mazzeo from Italy, Gabriel Cathala from France, Jacob Berger from the US, Waad Al Musa from the US and Iraq, and Mohamed El Bakkali from Morocco.
The character Handala, whom the ship is named after. (credit: SECTION 27A COPYRIGHT ACT)
On Sunday, Israel announced a halt in military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and new aid corridors as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped supplies into the enclave.
Facing growing international criticism
Israel has been facing growing international criticism, which the government rejects, over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and Hamas have broken off with no deal in sight.
Military activity will stop daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. until further notice in Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian area along the coast, in central Deir al-Balah, and Gaza City, to the north.
The IDF said designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine will also be in place between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. starting from Sunday.
The United Nations food aid agency needs quick approvals from Israel for its trucks to move into Gaza if it is to take advantage of Israel’s planned humanitarian pauses in fighting, a senior World Food Programme official said on Sunday.
The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the IDF unit responsible for coordinating and facilitating humanitarian initiatives, said on Monday that at least 120 trucks were collected and distributed on Sunday by the UN and other international groups. It added that 180 trucks were waiting to be collected, in addition to hundreds of others.
United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said on Sunday that some movement restrictions appeared to have been eased by Israel in Gaza on Sunday after Israel decided to “support a one-week scale-up of aid.”
Initial reports indicate that more than 100 truckloads of aid were collected from crossings to be transported into Gaza, Fletcher said in a statement.
“This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis,” he said.
In their first airdrop in months, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tons of aid into Gaza on Sunday, a Jordanian official said, but added that it was not a substitute for delivery by land.
The Egyptian Red Crescent announced that it would send more than 100 trucks carrying over 1,200 metric tons of food to southern Gaza on Sunday. Some had been looted in the area of Khan Younis after entering Gaza, residents said.
Israel cut off aid to Gaza from the start of March to pressure Hamas into giving up dozens of the 20 hostages it still holds, and reopened aid with new restrictions in May. Hamas-led terrorists kidnapped 251 people, mostly civilians, on October 7, 2023, in its cross-border massacre attack, which killed 1,200 people.
Israel says it has allowed in aid, but must prevent it from being diverted by terrorists, and blames Hamas for the suffering of Gaza’s people.