California Families, Officials Call for Release of US Citizens Detained With Gaza Aid Flotilla

Families are calling on California lawmakers for support nearly a week after their loved ones, who were part of a global flotilla aiming to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, were detained by Israeli military forces.

Sidney Hollar told KQED that her son Logan Hollarsmith, who grew up in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood, was detained early Wednesday while captaining the Ohwayla, a boat carrying U.S. veterans, as part of the high-profile maritime initiative that also included Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Hollar said that since the detentions, U.S. lawmakers in California and Washington have done little to ensure that the citizens are able to return to the U.S. safely.

“United States citizens are being held in an Israeli prison — the whole United States Senate should have been up in arms,” she said Monday morning. “There should have been pressure on [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio and [U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike] Huckabee. I saw very little.”

South Bay Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Silicon Valley, announced Monday afternoon on the social media platform X that he and 24 other California officials, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding he ensure the release and safe return of 21 U.S. citizens still detained in Israel.

“The U.S. has an obligation to protect its citizens abroad and must act immediately,” it reads. “We call on you to work for the immediate and safe release, including arranging the logistics of a plane to ensure their speedy recovery.”

While Hollarsmith, 33, now resides in Tucson, Arizona, his mother still lives in San Francisco. She said she has made repeated attempts to contact legislators, including California senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, for support after he was detained. As of Monday morning, she said she had not heard from either.

“I just find it appalling [that] we’ve received very little from our United States government to help get our citizens, especially the ones that were the United States [veterans], home,” Hollar said.

Padilla’s office confirmed Monday evening that it had been in contact with Hollar, as well as the State Department and the Israeli Embassy, regarding the detentions.

“We’re continuing to relay information to the families of the activists regarding their state of well-being, transfer status, and are urgently calling for the US Government to do everything in its power to facilitate their transfer back to the United States,” spokesperson Edgar Rodriguez said in an email.

Hollarsmith is one of about 500 activists, humanitarians and citizens from more than 40 countries who launched the Global Sumud Flotilla this summer, aiming to break a yearslong Israeli blockade. The fleet was aiming to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where hunger is widespread and the United Nations Secretary General has declared a famine.

Hundreds of the flotilla’s participants were detained and reportedly arrested last week after the activists said the Israeli navy blocked and illegally entered a number of vessels. According to the California lawmakers’ letter, the majority of the fleet was in international waters, about 70 nautical miles from shore, when it was boarded.

California lawmakers confirmed that California residents David Adler, Windfield Beaver, Tommy Marcus and Geraldine Ramirez were among the Americans detained. Advocacy organization Veterans for Peace said McCall Nichols, a California Army veteran aboard the Ohwayla, was also detained.

A spokesperson for the flotilla said Beaver had been released, but believed that Adler was still being held on Monday morning.

“[Adler’s] mother tells me: ‘David is now in an Israeli prison and his U.S. senators (Schiff and Padilla) are not being helpful,’” journalist Peter Beinart wrote on X on Friday. “‘The EU is all over the prison and our embassy has not shown up at all.’”

Over the weekend, Adler’s sister, Laura, told Khanna that her family had been unable to contact Adler since Oct. 1.

That day, Adler wrote on X, where he had been documenting the flotilla’s journey, that his ship was just 120 nautical miles away from Gaza, and that Israeli authorities had intercepted multiple vessels.

“As I write this, we are preparing ourselves for such an imminent attack,” he posted on social media.

A group of lawyers representing the flotilla participants say that detainees, many of whom were taken to Ketziot Prison outside of Beersheba, have reported mistreatment — including having food, water and medications withheld, not being allowed to contact family and having to sleep in crowded cells or on floors — in the detention facility. They say that last week, a tribunal reviewing the detainees’ detention orders illegally held hearings without their representatives present.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry refuted claims of mistreatment on X, calling them “brazen lies.”

“All the detainees’ legal rights are fully upheld,” the ministry wrote on Sunday.

Hollar said she heard from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem early Monday that Hollarsmith and the other U.S. citizens still in detention were expected to be deported in the next 24 hours. She said that she was told they would be flown out of the country, but not given information about where they would land.

From there, the U.S. would “loan them money for a hotel and for a flight home,” she said. She called the prospect “outrageous.”

“We can’t fund a little chartered flight to get our U. S. citizens, including U.S. vets, home?” Hollar said.

“The Americans are being punished by the American government for delivering humanitarian aid,” she said.