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Israel Says Two Gaza Flotilla Activists Brought in for Questioning

Vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was intercepted on international waters by the Israeli Navy, sail off the city of Ierapetra, on the island of Crete, Greece, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was intercepted on international waters by the Israeli Navy, sail off the city of Ierapetra, on the island of Crete, Greece, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israel Says Two Gaza Flotilla Activists Brought in for Questioning

Vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was intercepted on international waters by the Israeli Navy, sail off the city of Ierapetra, on the island of Crete, Greece, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was intercepted on international waters by the Israeli Navy, sail off the city of Ierapetra, on the island of Crete, Greece, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)

Two activists who participated in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla have been brought to Israel for questioning, the foreign ministry said Saturday, after the vessels were intercepted by Israeli forces.

The flotilla of more than 50 vessels had set sail from ports in France, Spain and Italy with the aim of breaking an Israeli blockade of Gaza and bringing supplies to the devastated Palestinian territory.

They were intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off Greece early on Thursday.

Israel said it had removed around 175 activists from the flotilla, but organizers accused Israeli personnel of "kidnapping" 211 people.

Two of them, Saif Abu Keshek from Spain and Thiago Avila, a Brazilian, were taken to Israel "for questioning by law enforcement authorities", the foreign ministry said on X.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares denounced Israel's detention of Abu Keshek as "illegal", warning it came at a moment of already deteriorating ties between the two countries.

"We are facing an illegal detention in international waters, outside any jurisdiction of the Israeli authorities so Saif Abu Keshek must be released immediately so that he can return to Spain," Albares told Rac1 radio.

"This is an episode that further strains our relationship... (with Israel) because of how unacceptable this situation is, because a state does not conduct itself in this manner."

- Worsening ties -

Ties between Israel and Spain have nosedived since the Gaza war sparked by the October 2023 Hamas cross-border attacks, with Israel angered by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's unrelenting criticism of its bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

Both countries have withdrawn their ambassadors.

Israel's foreign ministry said the two activists were affiliated with an organization that was sanctioned by the US Treasury.

That group -- the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) -- has been accused by Washington of "clandestinely acting on behalf of" Palestinian group Hamas.

The Treasury said the organization had played a role in organizing other Gaza-bound flotillas aimed at breaking Israel's blockade.

Israel's foreign ministry said Abu Keshek was a leading member of the PCPA. It said Avila was also linked to the organization and was "suspected of illegal activity".

"Both will receive a consular visit from the representatives of their respective countries in Israel," the ministry said.

Albares rejected the allegation, saying: "The information I myself have requested indicates that no link can be established between Saif Abu Keshek and Hamas".

Avila was among the organizers of a flotilla that tried to bring aid to Gaza last year. That effort was also intercepted by Israeli forces.

- Activists 'beaten' -

Israel controls all entry points into Gaza and the territory has been under Israeli blockade since 2007.

Throughout the Gaza war, there have been shortages of critical supplies in the Palestinian territory, with Israel at times cutting off aid entirely.

Organizers of the latest flotilla said the Israeli interception took place more than 1,000 kilometers from Gaza.

They said their equipment was smashed and the intervention left them facing a "calculated death trap at sea".

Dozens of intercepted activists disembarked on Friday at the Greek island of Crete, according to an AFP journalist.

Organizers published photos on X showing two activists with bruises on their faces, while one participant said in footage that Israeli forces had "beaten" them "several times".

Hamas condemned the interception, urging rights groups to pursue legal action against Israeli authorities for "crimes against the Global Sumud Flotilla, ensuring they do not enjoy impunity".

The Global Sumud Flotilla's first Mediterranean voyage to Gaza in the summer and autumn of 2025 drew worldwide attention, before Israeli forces intercepted the boats off the coasts of Egypt and Gaza in early October.

Crew members, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, were arrested and expelled by Israeli forces.

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Arab World

Israeli Strikes Kill Two People in Gaza, Including a 10-Year-Old, Medics Say

A Palestinian inspects a destroyed area following an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza City, 12 July 2026. (EPA)
A Palestinian inspects a destroyed area following an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza City, 12 July 2026. (EPA)
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Israeli Strikes Kill Two People in Gaza, Including a 10-Year-Old, Medics Say

A Palestinian inspects a destroyed area following an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza City, 12 July 2026. (EPA)
A Palestinian inspects a destroyed area following an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza City, 12 July 2026. (EPA)

An Israeli strike ‌and gunfire killed at least two Palestinians, including a 10-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Gazan health officials said.

The deaths add to a toll of more than 1,100 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks since an October ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect, according to health officials in the enclave.

The truce halted major fighting but has failed to stop sporadic violence. Four Israeli ‌soldiers have been ‌killed by fighters in Gaza over ‌the ⁠same period.

Medics said ⁠Muataz Abu Shaar, 10, was shot earlier on Tuesday by Israeli gunfire in Rafah, south Gaza. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Nearby in Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed a 36-year-old man and left three people wounded, medics ⁠added.

The Israeli military did not immediately ‌comment on either incident.

The latest ‌violence comes as Hamas leaders visited Cairo for further ‌talks on implementing the second phase of ‌US President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan.

The discussions include Hamas disarmament and Israeli army withdrawals, according to sources close to the talks, who added that there had not ‌yet been a breakthrough.

Hamas says Israel's violations of the ceasefire are ⁠a key obstacle ⁠to implementing the second phase of Trump's plan.

Nearly all of Gaza's 2 million people, most of whom have been displaced several times, now live on a tiny strip of land along the coast, mainly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings, under Hamas control.

Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people during their cross-border attack into Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies. The Gazan health ministry said more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since then.

Arab World

Lebanon, Israel Hold US-Brokered Talks in Rome to Implement Framework Deal

A motorcade arrives at the United States' Embassy in Rome, Italy, where ambassadors-level talks between Israel and Lebanon are expected to take place, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP)
A motorcade arrives at the United States' Embassy in Rome, Italy, where ambassadors-level talks between Israel and Lebanon are expected to take place, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP)
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Lebanon, Israel Hold US-Brokered Talks in Rome to Implement Framework Deal

A motorcade arrives at the United States' Embassy in Rome, Italy, where ambassadors-level talks between Israel and Lebanon are expected to take place, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP)
A motorcade arrives at the United States' Embassy in Rome, Italy, where ambassadors-level talks between Israel and Lebanon are expected to take place, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP)

Lebanon and Israel resumed talks on Tuesday in the Italian capital, with Beirut hoping for progress towards securing an Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon under a US-brokered deal, although expectations for swift progress were low.

US-led diplomacy has emerged since Hezbollah and Israel returned to war on March 2 amid the wider regional conflict, moving forward despite strong objections from the Iran-backed group, which believes only Iranian pressure on Washington can secure an end to the war and Israeli withdrawal.

Iran demanded an end to the war in Lebanon as part of its interim deal with Washington signed last month, but the agreement has been shaken over the last week by renewed US-Iranian hostilities in the Gulf.

Israel's military is occupying what it describes as a "buffer zone" about 10 km (6 miles) into Lebanon along the entire length of the ‌Israeli border. Israeli ‌officials say the zone is necessary to protect northern Israeli communities from attacks launched ‌by ⁠Hezbollah.

A meeting in ⁠Washington on June 26 produced an agreement that called for an end to the Lebanon conflict, the disarmament of armed groups - an apparent reference to Hezbollah - as well as the deployment of Lebanese troops to the south and the progressive withdrawal of Israeli forces.

But deadly Israeli strikes have continued and Hezbollah has rejected the agreement as well as efforts to disarm it. Israel, meanwhile, has said its troops would remain in southern Lebanon as long as Hezbollah remained armed.

Lebanese and Israeli officials will meet at the US embassy in Rome on Tuesday and Wednesday to set out how to implement the framework deal, Lebanese officials ⁠told Reuters.

One of the officials said moving the talks to Rome would make ‌it easier for both countries' delegations to consult their governments for guidance as ‌they negotiated.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday that Italy had offered to host the talks to continue work towards ‌a genuine ceasefire in Lebanon.

"We are also very pleased that Rome can serve as the venue for these meetings. In ‌this way, our capital becomes a capital of peace," Tajani said ahead of a European Union meeting in Brussels on Monday.

PILOT ZONES ON THE TABLE

In comments published by his office on Monday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said he hoped the Rome meeting would yield "tangible and practical steps on the ground" to implement the agreement and that it would see Israel begin its troop pull-out so ‌that the Lebanese army could deploy to the south.

One of the Lebanese officials said the country's delegation to Tuesday's talks would seek the gradual and sequential withdrawal of ⁠Israeli troops "one zone after another," ⁠referring to the "pilot zone" project under which Hezbollah would disarm, Israeli forces would withdraw and Lebanese troops would deploy area by area in southern Lebanon.

The June 26 agreement said two zones had been identified as a starting point. A US official said last week that the US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) was coordinating with both Lebanon and Israel to launch the pilot zones.

A US military delegation was in Lebanon at the weekend to discuss the plan in detail with Lebanon's army, sources told Reuters.

Israel's military has forced the local Lebanese population from their homes and carried out controlled explosions of entire villages. It says it is destroying infrastructure, including underground tunnels, used by Hezbollah.

More than 4,000 Lebanese have been killed and more than a million displaced by Israel's campaign in Lebanon since March, according to Lebanon's health ministry. The toll does not say how many combatants may be among the dead and Hezbollah has not disclosed figures on its war dead. Reuters reported on May 3 that several thousand Hezbollah fighters had been killed.

At least 32 Israeli soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed by Hezbollah, most of them in southern Lebanon since the latest fighting erupted.

Arab World

Trump Rolls Out the White House Welcome Mat for New Iraqi PM

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi departs on his visit to the US. (INA)
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi departs on his visit to the US. (INA)
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Trump Rolls Out the White House Welcome Mat for New Iraqi PM

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi departs on his visit to the US. (INA)
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi departs on his visit to the US. (INA)

President Donald Trump is welcoming Iraq's new prime minister to the White House on Tuesday after strongly backing the political neophyte in his bid for office.

Ali al-Zaidi, a businessman with no political background, emerged as a consensus candidate in Iraq after months of deadlock over the premiership following last year’s parliamentary elections.

When al-Zaidi was formally installed as prime minister-designate in April, Trump said in a social media post that it was the “beginning of a tremendous new chapter between our Nations — Prosperity, Stability, and Success like never seen before.”

But Trump’s interest and involvement in the next leadership in Iraq began long before that statement.

Iraq’s dominant parliamentary bloc, the Coordination Framework — a coalition of Shiite parties allied with Iran — initially said it would back former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whom the Trump administration views as too close to Tehran.

The US president publicly announced his opposition to al-Maliki and threatened to cut off aid to Iraq if he was appointed, adding that “if we are there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of Success, Prosperity, or Freedom.”

The issue of Iran is likely to loom large in the discussions Tuesday.

Iraq has been under pressure to disarm a network of Iran-backed armed factions operating in the country, some of which launched attacks on US bases and diplomatic facilities after the US and Israel launched their war against Iran in February.

Officially, the Iraqi government has given non-state armed groups until the end of September to disarm, but some of the most powerful factions have said they have no intention of doing so.

A Trump administration official said ahead of the Oval Office meeting that the US will make “informed” decisions based on Iraq’s efforts to disarm Iranian-backed factions inside its borders. The official was granted anonymity to discuss the administration’s strategy ahead of al-Zaidi’s visit.

Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq Initiative at the Chatham House think tank, said he expects that “the US will put significant pressure on al-Zaidi” to move ahead with disarmament during his Washington visit “and al-Zaidi will respond by saying, ‘But I need support — intelligence support, technical support, armed support.’”

“There is a scenario in which, if the Iraqi government starts going after these groups, they will also go after the government,” Mansour said. “And this is a scenario that I think that the Iraqi government is apprehensive about.”

Al-Zaidi received Trump’s blessing, despite the fact that he was chairman of a bank — Al-Janoob Islamic Bank — that was among the financial institutions banned by Iraq’s central bank in 2024 from dealing in dollars amid pressure from the US to crack down on money laundering and funneling of funds to Iran.

Since taking office, al-Zaidi has made a public show of cracking down on corruption. His government has conducted raids and arrested dozens of current and former lawmakers and government officials accused of corruption, including a number affiliated with former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

The Iraqi premier’s delegation to Washington includes a number of Iraqi businessmen as well as government officials, and al-Zaidi’s office said in a statement that the aim of the visit is to “strengthen economic and development partnerships, attract investment, and expand the role of US companies in implementing infrastructure projects” and to further develop the oil-rich country’s energy sector.