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On June 9, Israeli forces seized the Madleen ship in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea as it attempted to break the suffocating siege on Gaza.

The 12 activists on board – who belong to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition – were abducted in international waters and taken to Israel.

One day after their capture, four of them were swiftly deported after waiving their right to see an Israeli judge and signing a deportation order that claimed they had “illegally” entered Israel. Well-known Swedish climate and human rights activist, Greta Thunberg, was among those deported.

The other eight refused to sign and remained in detention. On Thursday, six of them were deported, including Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian member of the European Parliament.

Another two French nationals remain in Israeli custody awaiting deportation on Friday, according to Adalah, a nonprofit legal association in Israel.

This is everything you need to know about their treatment.

Who are the 12 activists?

On Tuesday, Israel deported Thunberg (Sweden), Sergio Toribio (Spain), Baptiste Andre (France) and Omar Faiad (France). Faiad is a reporter with Al Jazeera Mubasher.

On Thursday, six more were deported, including Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian member of the European Parliament, Mark van Rennes (Netherlands), Suayb Ordu (Turkiye), Yasemin Acar (Germany), Thiago Avila (Brazil) and Reva Viard (France), according to Adalah, cited by Turkish news agency Anadolu.

French nationals Pascal Maurieras and Yanis Mhamdi remain in detention and are expected to be released on Friday, according to Adalah. Mhamdi is a journalist for The Blast, a French left-wing outlet.

Where were the activists held?

In Givon prison in Ramla, a city between West Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Two of the activists, Hassan and Avila, were placed in solitary confinement, according to Adalah.

Hassan was taken there after first writing “Free Palestine” on the prison walls. Adalah later reported that Avila began a hunger and water strike to protest Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which has led to widespread starvation.

Hassan was later returned to Givon, said Adalah.

After Thursday’s release of Hassan and Avila, along with four others from the Madleen, Adalah released a statement saying that “volunteers were subjected to mistreatment, punitive measures and aggressive treatment, and two volunteers were held for some period of time in solitary confinement”.

Did Israel violate international law by arresting the activists on the Madleen?

According to Luigi Daniele, a legal scholar at the University of Molise, Italy, Israel has no right to intercept a boat in international waters or to deny aid to starving civilians in Gaza.

On the contrary, Israel has an international legal obligation as an occupying power to facilitate aid into Gaza.

He told a local Italian outlet that Israel, above all, has no legal right to use force or permanent aggression on occupied Palestinian territory, including against the activists who were sailing to Gaza on the Madleen.

Adalah has also argued that the activists were not trying to enter Israel illegally, but were sailing to Gaza, which is occupied Palestinian land.

Israeli courts dismissed the legal arguments made by Adalah.

How long will the remaining two activists remain in detention?

The Madleen activists are supposed to serve 72 hours in the Israeli prison before being deported back to their home countries, according to Israeli law.

This indicates all activists should have been released at some point on June 12, yet it is unclear if the remaining detainees – Maurieras and Mhamdi – will face additional charges that could keep them longer in prison.

Have embassies lobbied for their release?

Some have, while others have been curiously silent.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, said earlier this week that he expected the four French activists who were on board the Madleen to return to France on Thursday or Friday. As of Thursday, two remained in detention.

Brazil had also demanded the release of Brazilian activist, Avila. When the activists were first abducted from international waters, Brazilian diplomats reportedly visited Givon prison to assist with legal proceedings.

In addition, Turkiye called Israel a “terrorist state” after the Madleen was intercepted.

Germany and the Netherlands, however, did not issue public statements to demand the release of their nationals.

The Madleen’s captain, Mark van Reenes, deported on Thursday, is a Dutch national who filmed himself just before Israel seized the ship.

In the video, he called on his country to urgently demand his release.

Democratic lawmakers have expressed outrage after United States Senator Alex Padilla of California was roughly removed from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) news conference, then forced to the ground and handcuffed.

A video of the incident shows Padilla appearing to interrupt a Thursday news conference in Los Angeles held by DHS chief Kristi Noem.

“I am Senator Alex Padilla,” he said, stepping forward as Noem spoke. “I have a question for the secretary.”

But he never got a chance to ask the question. Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had already surrounded Padilla and were pushing him out of the conference room. A mobile phone video shot by a member of Padilla’s staff showed the senator yelling, “Hands off,” as he was escorted into an adjacent hallway.

Agents ultimately forced him to the ground, as Padilla protested he could not keep his hands behind his back as requested and lay his body flat at the same time. One FBI agent then stood in front of the camera and ordered the staffer to stop recording.

The senator’s office has said Padilla is currently not detained. In a statement, it explained that Padilla had hoped to question Noem and General Gregory Guillot about the US military deployment against protesters in Los Angeles.

“Senator Padilla is currently in Los Angeles exercising his duty to perform Congressional oversight of the federal government’s operations in Los Angeles and across California,” his office said in a statement.

“He was in the federal building to receive a briefing with General Guillot and was listening to Secretary Noem’s press conference. He tried to ask the Secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents.”

What just happened to @SenAlexPadilla is absolutely abhorrent and outrageous.

He is a sitting United States Senator.

This administration’s violent attacks on our city must end.pic.twitter.com/qbh9ZPE8i9

Padilla himself held a news conference afterwards, where he drew a parallel between his rough treatment and the immigration raids happening under the administration of President Donald Trump.

“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, I can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day labourers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country,” Padilla told reporters.

The recent protests in Los Angeles came in response to the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign, which has targeted undocumented workers at places such as the Home Depot hardware store chain.

Trump has since responded to those protests by deploying nearly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 US Marines to southern California, in what critics have called an illegal use of military power against civilians.

On Thursday, Padilla’s Democratic colleagues in the Senate rushed to voice their support after the incident.

“I just saw something that sickened my stomach — the manhandling of a United States senator,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “We need immediate answers to what the hell went on.”

Representative Maxwell Frost of Florida later shot a video showing Democrats walking to Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office to call for action.

“There must be accountability for the detainment of a Senator. This is not normal,” Frost wrote.

On social media, however, DHS accused Padilla of engaging in “disrespectful political theatre”. It argued that the senator had not identified himself as he “lunged” towards Noem, something that appears to be contradicted by video of the incident.

DHS said Noem met Padilla after the news conference for 15 minutes.

California officials have accused Trump of provoking tensions in the state by sending the military to crack down on the protests, some of which turned violent but have already started to ease.

The last time a president deployed the National Guard in a state over the objections of a governor was in 1965, to protect civil rights protesters from violence in segregated Alabama.

Governor Gavin Newsom has since sued the Trump administration to block the use of US military might outside of federal sites, calling it a step towards “authoritarianism”.

Earlier this week, Padilla said that Trump’s immigration raids were “terrorising communities, breaking apart families and putting American citizens in harm’s way”.

Trump has suggested that he could have California Governor Gavin Newsom arrested and mused that he could declare martial law if the protests continue. He also described the protesters as “animals” and “a foreign enemy”, framing them as part of a wider “invasion” that justifies emergency powers.

The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, promises that forces will continue their immigration crackdown in an effort to “liberate” Los Angeles, pushing back at criticism that sending the US military into the city was unwarranted and illegal.

“We have more assets now, today, than we did yesterday. We had more yesterday than we did the day before, so we are only building momentum,” Noem said during a news conference in the city. “This is only going to continue and be increased until we have peace on the streets of Los Angeles.”

As Noem was speaking, a US Democratic senator from California, Alex Padilla, was forcefully ejected from the room while trying to make himself heard – a removal that was swiftly condemned by other Democrats.

Padilla’s office said that once outside the room, the senator was pushed to the ground and handcuffed. He was later released.

President Donald Trump’s decision to dispatch troops to Los Angeles over the objections of California Governor Gavin Newsom has sparked a national debate about the use of the military in law enforcement operations on US soil.

Some 700 US Marines will be on the streets of the city by Thursday or Friday, the military has said, to support up to 4,000 National Guard troops in protecting federal property and federal agents, including on immigration raids.

Noem defended the use of National Guard troops and Marines alongside ICE agents and other federal personnel, saying Trump “has the right to utilise every authority that he has.”

The state of California is seeking a federal court order later today that would stop troops from “patrolling the streets of Los Angeles” and limit their role to protecting federal personnel and property. California’s lawsuit ultimately seeks to rescind Trump’s order to deploy the National Guard to the area.

In a court filing on Thursday, California argued that the federal government has already violated the law by having National Guard troops assist ICE agents in immigration raids.

Noem said federal officers have arrested more than 1,500 people and that the department has “tens of thousands of targets” in the region.

She said the Internal Revenue Service was investigating whether there are financial links between the protests and political advocacy groups, something of which there has been little evidence.

Trump’s parade

On Saturday, Americans likely will see split-screen images of US troops on the streets of two major cities: Los Angeles, where troops are guarding federal buildings, and Washington where soldiers, accompanied by tanks and other armored vehicles, will rumble down Constitution Avenue in a rare public display of military might to celebrate the Army’s 250th birthday.

Nearly 2,000 protests against the parade, which is taking place on Trump’s 79th birthday, are planned around the country in one of the biggest demonstrations against Trump since he returned to power in January.

Mostly peaceful street protests so far this week have taken place in multiple cities besides Los Angeles, including New York, Chicago, Washington, DC and San Antonio, Texas.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Thursday he has ordered the deployment of more than 5,000 Texas National Guard troops, along with more than 2,000 state police, to help local law enforcement manage protests against Trump and the continuing federal immigration raids.

Abbott’s announcement did not detail where the troops were sent, but some were seen at a protest Wednesday night in downtown San Antonio near the Alamo. That protest drew hundreds of demonstrators but did not erupt into violence.

“Peaceful protests are part of the fabric of our nation, but Texas will not tolerate the lawlessness we have seen in Los Angeles in response to President Donald Trump’s enforcement of immigration law,” Abbott said. “Anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property will be arrested and held accountable to the full extent of the law.”

Mayors in San Antonio and Austin have said they did not ask for Abbott to mobilise the National Guard to their cities.

Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe on Thursday also activated the state’s National Guard “in response to civil unrest”.

“We respect, and will defend, the right to peacefully protest, but we will not tolerate violence or lawlessness in our state,” Kehoe said in a statement on the governor’s website. “While other states may wait for chaos to ensue, the State of Missouri is taking a proactive approach in the event that assistance is needed to support local law enforcement in protecting our citizens and communities.”

The Los Angeles protests began last Friday in response to a series of immigration raids in the city. Trump, in turn, called in the National Guard on Saturday, then ordered the deployment of Marines on Monday.

“Los Angeles was safe and sound for the last two nights. Our great National Guard, with a little help from the Marines, put the LA Police in a position to effectively do their job,” Trump posted on social media on Thursday.

State and city officials say Trump is exaggerating what is happening in the city and that local police have the situation under control. The protests have been largely orderly but occasionally punctuated by violence, mostly contained to a few blocks.

Police said demonstrators at one location threw commercial-grade fireworks and rocks at officers on Wednesday night.

Another group of nearly 1,000 demonstrators was peacefully marching through downtown when police suddenly opened fire with less lethal munitions in front of City Hall.

Limits sought

Trump is carrying out a campaign promise to deport immigrants, employing forceful tactics consistent with the norm-breaking political style that got him elected twice.

The administration has circulated images showing National Guard troops protecting immigration agents who were arresting suspected undocumented migrants – a permissible function for the troops under federal law.

But the state argues those Guard troops have crossed the line into illegal activity under the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from participating in civilian law enforcement.

“For example, photos posted on social media by ICE depict heavily armed members of the National Guard standing alongside ICE agents during arrests,” California said in its latest court filing.

Unless a judge intervenes, the military’s role likely will grow to include “detention, interrogation, and other activities that are practically indistinguishable from urban policing operations”, the filing asserts.

The Trump administration said in a Wednesday court filing that the judge should not restrict the military’s activities in Los Angeles.

“Neither the National Guard nor the Marines are engaged in law enforcement. Rather, they are protecting law enforcement, consistent with longstanding practice and the inherent protective power to provide for the safety of federal property and personnel,” the administration wrote.

US Army Major General Scott Sherman, who commands the task force of Marines and Guardsmen, told reporters the Marines will not load their rifles with live ammunition, but they will carry live rounds.

Israel has been pushing to strike Iran for months, if not years. Signs this week that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities was potentially imminent have ratcheted up fears of a regional conflict, particularly in light of the US withdrawal of some diplomatic staff and their dependents from Iraq and the wider region.

US President Donald Trump’s comments have added to the sense that a military confrontation is coming, saying on Thursday that a strike “could very well happen”.

And yet, at the same time, Trump said that he would not call the strike imminent, and wanted to avoid a conflict.

Earlier in the week, Israeli media reported that Trump had also asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dial down talk of a strike against Iran, adding to the sense that Trump himself wanted to avoid any conflict with Iran, especially as nuclear talks between Iran and the US are ongoing – with the next round set to take place on Sunday.

Whether an Israeli strike will take place in the short term is thus still unclear.

“One way of looking at this is that it may be part of the larger picture,” Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, said of the role the threat of unilateral action from Israel may play in US negotiations with Iran. “It may be that the US is using their ‘crazy friend’ as a tactic to bring pressure upon Iran … On the other hand, it may be that the crazy friend means business.”

Possibility of a strike

Israel’s opposition to Iran is longstanding.

Through the course of its 20-month-long war on Gaza, Netanyahu has seized on the opportunity to confront a foe he has consistently pitched as his country’s ultimate nemesis.

In addition to boasting that he was responsible for Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme in 2018, Netanyahu has also ordered air strikes, assassinations and cyberattacks designed to either slow or halt Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Israeli right-wing, led by Netanyahu, has long considered Iran an existential threat and believes that the country seeks a nuclear weapon, despite Iranian denials.

Iran also supports anti-Israeli groups across the region, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis. With many of Iran’s allies, particularly Hezbollah, severely weakened after fighting Israel since 2023, some in Israel view this as the perfect opportunity to also deliver a knockout blow to Iran itself.

Speaking to the New York Times on Wednesday, a senior Iranian official said that military and government officials have already met in anticipation of a potential Israeli strike.

According to the unnamed official, any strike by Israel would be met with the immediate launch of hundreds of ballistic missiles.

“Logically, and I’m stressing ‘logically,’ Israel shouldn’t strike at Iran,” Mekelberg said, “Even with US support, it likely wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“However, in this environment, there are no voices that are going to restrain Netanyahu: not the foreign minister, not the defence minister,” he said.

“The head of the Shin Bet [domestic intelligence service], who would normally counsel Netanyahu, has been forced out, and the attorney general, who might also advise him, [Netanyahu is] trying to get dismissed,” Mekelberg added. “That leaves no one, perhaps other than some voices in the military and Mossad, that could act as a check on Netanyahu.”

In need of a friend

Internationally, both Israel and Netanyahu have become increasingly isolated, throwing their relationship with the US into sharp focus.

In the last few weeks, many Western states have increased their opposition towards Israel’s war on Gaza.

Earlier in the week, five countries – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom – sanctioned two of Netanyahu’s government ministers, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leaving Israel more reliant upon US support than ever, observers said.

“I can’t see Israel taking any action without the US,” Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and former political aide to several senior Israeli political figures, including Netanyahu, told Al Jazeera.

“Something is definitely going on, but I can’t see Israel doing anything without the tacit or active support of the US.”

“This could be a negotiating tactic on the part of Trump. He’s entered negotiations, and he wants results. Now, he sees Iran stalling, the IAEA report condemning them, and suddenly, he’s got Netanyahu threatening to strike if they don’t cut a deal,” he said.

Other observers questioned the timing of both reports of Trump restraining Netanyahu’s threat of strikes, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency report – which determined that Iran was not complying with its commitment to international nuclear safeguards – falling so close to Sunday’s talks.

“Right now, every taxi in Tel Aviv will tell you that Israel’s about to strike at Iran,” Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera. “I may be wrong, but I really doubt it.

“Netanyahu’s unlikely to do anything without the US’s greenlight. It’s not the way he or Israel works,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s going to let up,” Pinkas said of negotiations likely to continue beyond Sunday, “I fully expect Trump to again speak of having to restrain Netanyahu. It’s just another means of exerting pressure on Iran.”

However, that is not to rule out a strike from Israel altogether.