Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Brazil’s Lula demands ‘immediate’ release of Gaza flotilla activists
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Brazilian activist Thiago Avila is escorted into the Ashkelon Magistrate's Court on May 5, 2026. (Ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP)
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva demands that Israel release two activists taken from a Gaza-bound flotilla, one of whom is a Brazilian national.
“Our government, together with that of Spain — which also had a citizen detained — demands that they be fully guaranteed their safety and immediately released,” Lula writes on the X social network.
Brazilian Thiago Avila and Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek both appeared in court earlier today, where their detention was extended by six days. The pair, held in a prison in Ashkelon, were among dozens of activists aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off the coast of Greece early on Thursday.
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