An Israeli court decides to continue the detention of 8 Madeleine activists.

An Israeli court has decided to continue the detention of eight activists arrested from the Madeleine ship in international waters for a period that could last more than a month until a decision is issued to deport them.

Adalah, the Arab-Israeli human rights organization, said in a statement on Wednesday that the Ramle detention court "decided late Tuesday evening to keep eight activists who were on board the Madeleine ship in detention until the deportation order is implemented."

The center's statement indicated that the court has set a new detention review session for July 8, 2025, if the deportation is not carried out before that date.

He stated that the decision came after the legal appeals filed by the Adalah legal team, consisting of attorney Lubna Touma, attorney Hadeel Abu Saleh, and volunteer attorney Afnan Khalifa, were rejected. He also received the text of the decision to continue the detention of the eight activists this morning.

The center explained in its statement that the detained activists are Hamshab Ordu (Turkey), Mark van Rijns (Netherlands), Pascal Moreiras (France), Riva Viard (France), Rima Hassan (France), Thiago Ovila (Brazil), Yanis Mohammadi (France), and Yasmin Ajar (Germany).

violation

Adalah noted that the law on which the court based its decision—illegal entry into Israel—does not apply in any way to the activists' case.

He stated that "none of them sought to enter Israel or its territorial waters. Rather, their plan was to set out from Sicily and reach the territorial waters of the Gaza Strip, which is recognized as part of the territory of the State of Palestine, via international waters."

He also considered what happened "to be the interception of the ship by Israeli naval forces, in addition to the detention of the activists and their forced transfer to Israel, thus violating their will and basic rights guaranteed under international humanitarian law."

The Israeli Navy seized the ship "Madeleine" at dawn on Monday and arrested 12 activists while they were in international territorial waters, attempting to break the blockade on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to the territory.

In the past two days, Israel deported four activists who signed a pledge not to return to Israel again, while the other eight refused to sign the pledge.