Humboldt Flotilla Activist Detained and Released by Israel, Three Others Remain with Global Sumud Flotilla

Global Sumud Flotilla ships, docked in Italy. [Photo provided by Sacha Marini.]

Organizers with the flotilla said that this interception so far from the waters of Gaza was unexpected, as it occurred early in the flotilla’s mission. However, participants also said that such an action–which they described as an “act of piracy” and a violation of maritime law and international law–was not surprising.  

Where Are Humboldt’s Sailors Now?

According to the Global Sumud Flotilla’s (GSF) May 3 press release, all four Humboldt County participants have been accounted for, including the Beaver brothers, Wildfield and Silas.

Silas Beaver, of Orleans, was among the approximately 180 people detained by Israeli naval forces during the April 30 raid just outside the territorial waters of Greece. 

According to the GSF, he was released on May 1 and was interviewed upon arriving in Turkey. 

A TV journalist from Indonesia, with Metro TV, interviewed Silas Beaver upon his release, where he relayed details of his experience being detained. In the Turkish broadcast titled Breaking The Zionist Israel Blockade, Beaver described being held at gunpoint by six Israeli military personnel, with laser sights pointed at the crew.

Describing the experience, Beaver told the Metro TV reporter while in Turkey, “they took most of my clothes off. They checked me, checked my pockets, checked my whole body looking for anything that I might’ve brought… They would shove me to the ground and make me put my forehead on the ground… being forceful and intimidating,” he said. “Then they moved me into a containment area where the rest of our comrades were,” Beaver added, before describing some of the injuries he witnessed, noting, “there were many injuries… including broken ribs, heavily injured shoulders from arms being twisted and lifted by the arms, concussions, fractures, whole faces very beat – up one person at least one person got shot with a projectile…” 

A screengrab from the Metro TV news segment shows one of the vessels being intercepted at sea. It is unclear if this is the vessel which Beaver was aboard. 

Beaver then informed the reporter of the two steering committee members still held in Israeli custody, in Israel, saying, “two of our comrades were taken, and as far as we know are still in prison, I think they’ve been taken to Israel.” 

His brother Windfield -who went on this mission after being detained and deported during last fall’s flotilla– had already departed the flotilla earlier in the week after his boat suffered an engine failure, which was unrelated to instances of sabotage reported by the activists following the maritime sweep. 

A GSF press liaison confirmed to Redheaded Blackbelt that the engine failure was unrelated to the Israeli sabotage of other vessels – Windfield self-extracted and is safe ashore.

Sacha Marini, the Eureka-based volunteer whose participation anchored our original coverage of the local contingent, “evaded the Israeli speedboats” during the raid and navigated to Greek national waters for safe harbor. She and her shipmates remain confined to their boat, first due to foul weather, and now amid concerns that Greece may not allow flotilla ships to leave port, as has happened in previous missions according to the GSF. 

Greg Terry of Arcata is in the same situation, sheltering alongside Marini in Greek waters. 

Accounts of Open Sea Military Raid 

According to the GSF’s May 1 press release, in the evening of April 29, Israeli naval forces appeared in the Mediterranean Sea just south of Greece and dispatched three or four speedboats, which spent the night circling and intercepting flotilla vessels. By the morning of April 30, a total of 22 boats had been seized – more than 600 miles from Gaza, which organizers say occurred in international waters where Israel has no legal jurisdiction.

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ships on the high seas are governed only by the laws of the country whose flag they fly. Under that interpretation Israel had no authority to stop, board, or seize those vessels bearing flags of other nations. 

Palestinian flags on ship masts with the flotilla. [Photo provided by Sacha Marini.]

The GSF press release states, “[T]his is piracy,” they wrote, asserting that the action of “the unlawful seizure of human beings” reflects their concern that despite illegality, “that Israel can operate with total impunity, far beyond its own borders, with no consequences.”

Of the roughly 180 people seized, the majority were transferred to Greek coast guard vessels and brought ashore in Crete. Thirty-four were taken to a hospital, according to the GSF, which alleged that some released detainees were beaten by Israeli forces when they protested the separate detention of two flotilla organizers- Saif Abukeshek and Thiago Ávila -who were taken to Israel rather than Greece. Among the injuries reportedly sustained by flotilla members were broken noses, cracked ribs, and other injuries which required medical attention. 

Marini described what she learned from those released. “People [were] forced onto the big ship after the night of abductions in international waters… they were beaten when they protested and tried to keep 2 organizers- Thiago and Saif -from being sent to [the Israeli port] Ashdod, while releasing everyone else,” explained Marini.

The cases of Abukeshek and Ávila are among the most significant developments to emerge from the raid to date, and their situation alarms flotilla organizers. According to the GSF’s May 3 press release, Abukeshek is a Swedish and Spanish national of Palestinian descent and a member of the GSF steering committee – and he was not destined to sail to Gaza when he was taken, but rather, had planned to stop off along the way. Abukeshek was reportedly aboard an observer boat when Israeli forces took him. Ávila, a Brazilian national and fellow GSF steering committee member, has stated he will refuse to leave Israeli custody if authorities release him without Abukeshek. 

Both men are on hunger strike. On May 3, an Israeli court extended their detention by two more days despite their lawyers presenting testimony of severe abuse, including beatings, prolonged physical restraint, blindfolding, and isolation at sea – which the Israeli rights group Adalah characterized as treatment amounting to torture under international law. 

‘We Sail to Break the Siege’

Prior to the Israeli naval sweep on the flotilla, RHBB asked Terry and Marini each why this mission was important to them, and what activism background they have, or if this was their first foray into direct action activism.  

Marini, who spent 17 years directing the Teen Court restorative justice program at the Boys and Girls Club of the Redwoods in Eureka before retiring in fall 2024, described a lifetime of activism – anti-nuclear protests in the 1980s, prison abolition work in the 2000s – all driven by the same conviction. “The assault on Palestine is a genocide unfolding in real time,” she told RHBB, adding, “I don’t want to sit by and have history say no one did anything. Ordinary people can rise up.”

Global Sumud Flotilla ships, docked in Italy. [Photo provided by Sacha Marini.]

Greg Terry, who co-hosts the political radio show “Our Hour” on KHHA in Arcata, and describes this as his first nonviolent direct action, was blunt about his reasons. “The catalyst is the genocide,” he wrote. “If the Zionists want us to stop running their illegal blockade, they should stop starving and bombing people in Gaza.” 

Now that both of them have lived through a midnight military raid at sea, the weight of the situation carries a heavier sense of importance for Humboldt activist Sacha Marini. Prior to the raid, Terry surmised in an email response to RHBB, “We are protected by the high political costs of hurting us,” he asserted. “Palestinians have no such protection,” Terry said, adding, “[t]he genocide in palestine continues because there are no political costs when the zionists kill Palestinians. We want to carry the eyes of the world with us to gaza so that people will see the constant danger and hardship that Palestinians in gaza face daily.”  

Just days after Israeli forces seized 22 boats, four new Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessels departed Sicily carrying 30 participants from 12 countries. Retired U.S. Army Colonel and former diplomat Ann Wright, a Freedom Flotilla organizer, said the departure was a deliberate response. “The launch of our vessels today is a direct response to Israel’s escalation,” Wright said. 

A screengrab of the Freedom Flotilla tracker shows all 4 vessels sailing in real time, roughly 24 hours ago. 

The GSF offered its own explanation for why civilian ships are out there. “We are…not affiliated with any governments or parties,” the organization stated in its May 3 press release. “If the governments of the world stood up and stopped the genocidal state of Israel from committing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank, we wouldn’t need to be sailing.”

Huffman’s Challenger Rose Yee Weighs In

The interception has created political contrast right here in Humboldt County.

Rose Yee, who is challenging Congressman Jared Huffman for California’s 2nd Congressional District seat, was in Old Town Eureka on Saturday when this reporter caught up with her. 

Yee, who authored a unanimous resolution condemning the genocide in Gaza as chair of the Shasta County Democratic Central Committee in October 2025, went further, suggesting that she would volunteer to join the GSF, “if they would have [her]” she said. 

“If I were the congresswoman of District Two, I would be…going out and maybe even joining the Sumud Flotilla myself… as a statement and setting a model, an example of a lawmaker who really walks the talk.”

“It is beyond comprehension to me that we have congress people who at the very least could have made a statement, and they’re not even doing it,” Yee said. When informed during the interview that four Humboldt County residents were among the flotilla participants, and that one had been detained, Yee immediately offered to act.

“Email me their names,” she said, “and I will definitely issue a statement of support and call on the current congressperson to do whatever he can to help secure the safety of Humboldt County volunteer activists.” She also asserted that she would brief lieutenant governor candidate Oliver Ma, noting their shared membership in the newly state-chartered California Democrats for Justice in Palestine club. 

Congressman Huffman’s record on this issue is viewed as weak in the eyes of activists. “Our representative Jared Huffman has waffled around US government support for Israel,” Terry told us, prior to the flotilla seizures. 

In January 2025, Humboldt County peace activists protested at Hoffman‘s Eureka office, calling for an arms embargo. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]

Putting pressure on elected officials who have constituents within the flotilla, the GSF’s legal team has been explicit about what they want from members of Congress. “All members of Congress,” they say, “need to be issuing PUBLIC condemnations of the interceptions and the physical harm done to US citizens.” Closer to home, the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee has already passed its own resolution calling for a halt to U.S. military aid to Israel and urging compliance with international law, a position Huffman has not publicly embraced. 

Redheaded Blackbelt submitted an inquiry to his office on May 3 and has not received a response.

Washington Weighs In

While most of the international community condemned the interception, the Trump administration sided with Israel, and went further than defending the raid.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement calling the flotilla a “pro-Hamas initiative” and urged American allies abroad to deny port access, refueling, and docking to flotilla vessels, even threatening to “impose consequences” on any nation that provides support. The GSF and pro-Palestinian activists have broadly rejected the Hamas label, stating they are “not affiliated with any governments or parties.”

With Washington squarely at odds with much of Europe and the United Nations, Spain called the interception “illegal” and summoned the Israeli charge d’affaires. Germany and Italy expressed “great concern” and called for restraint. Turkey called it “an act of piracy.”

The UN human rights office stated that “international law does not allow for the interception of foreign civilian vessels” on the high seas. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese — one of the keynote speakers at the Global Sumud Parliamentary Congress in Brussels just days before the raid — called the interception “an abomination” and said “hostage taking is a crime.”

Reporters Without Borders condemned Israel for detaining three journalists aboard the flotilla, including two Al Jazeera reporters. In New York City, recently elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani called it “a brazen violation of international law” and said his team was in contact with state and federal partners on behalf of detained New Yorkers.

The GSF condemned the silence of governments with constituents aboard, saying, “Governments that claim to uphold international law have, once again, said nothing. No urgent condemnations. No immediate demands for the release of the captives. This absence of response is not neutrality. It is permission and it is complicity.”

More than 200 protests have been organized globally in response to the interception, according to the GSF. In Italy alone, over 40 direct actions are underway. The flotilla has not turned back, but instead, continues to sail to Gaza.  

As of Saturday, 47 of the original flotilla boats remained at sea, 51 total currently sailing, with each carrying roughly food, medical supplies, and other humanitarian goods, according to Reuters. 

To track the remaining flotilla vessels in real time, go to https://freedomflotilla.org/ffc-gsf-tracker/ where both the Freedom Flotilla and the Global Sumud Flotilla are linked with live cameras showing real-time sailing.  

EARLIER: 

• Four from Humboldt Set Sail on Largest Civilian Flotilla in History Bound for Gaza
• ‘Abducted’ in International Waters: North Coast Native Sailing to Gaza on Veteran’s Flotilla is Intercepted
• [UPDATE 1:36 a.m.: Turkish News Interviews the Freed Local Man] Waves of Resistance: North Coast Flotilla Activist is Released by Israel’s Military