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ST. LOUIS — An Affton resident who was detained by the Israeli military while sailing on an aid ship to Gaza has been released.

Bob Suberi’s wife, Barbara Suberi, confirmed Monday morning that her husband was released Sunday, about 24 hours after the Israel Navy intercepted a vessel carrying him and 20 others attempting to break Israel’s blockade to deliver food and humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Israel forces intercepted the boat, called Handala, about 60 miles from Gaza at 3:34 p.m. Central Time on Saturday. It carried medicine, food, feminine hygiene products, baby formula and other aid. It was on a mission to break Israel’s “illegal siege of Gaza,� the boat’s sponsor, Freedom Flotilla Coalition, .

Suberi was released along with Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian-American human rights lawyer . Both are dual citizens of Israel and the United States.

Arraf, Monday with the “Democracy Now� television program, said Israeli forces talked of charging her and Suberi with entering Israel illegally and attempting to enter a “blockaded area.�

“We said we are sailing according to international law,� Arraf told “Democracy Now.� “I think they know that their charges and their legal justification are ridiculous because they did not charge us. They let us go without any conditions.�

Bob Suberi dumped his phone in the ocean, his wife said, and could not be reached by the Post-Dispatch Monday. He currently is in Jaffa, where he has family, Barbara Suberi said.

The Handala made it further than Freedom Flotilla’s previous aid boat, the Mandleen, which attempted to sail to Gaza in June with a crew including climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Organizers with the Freedom Flotilla Monday afternoon that 14 members of the Handala’s crew remained in Israeli custody and were on a hunger strike to protest their unlawful detention.

Suberi has been on board the Handala three times. At 77, he was the oldest member of the current crew.

The Handala set sail as reports of mass starvation in Gaza reached a peak. In a news release Sunday, the World Health Organization said more than 5,000 children younger than 5 in Gaza had been admitted for outpatient treatment of malnutrition in the first two weeks of July.

“We’re plugged in to our privilege of the Western world, and we’re trying to bring attention to what’s going on to these people,� Bob Suberi said in a Friday interview with the Post-Dispatch. “I don’t think there’s a better way to do it at this time.�

Suberi, a retired St. Louis restaurateur, is Jewish and describes himself as a “recovering Zionist.� He has been involved in Palestinian activism for the past few years.

In 2019, Suberi visited the West Bank for the first time through the Center for Jewish Non-Violence. He has since spent several months in Masafer Yatta, a collection of Palestinian hamlets, where he and others work to provide a “protective presence,� Barbara Suberi said.

Bob Suberi leads the St. Louis chapter of Veterans for Peace and is a member of the Green Party of St. Louis.

Green Party outreach coordinator Don Fitz said Suberi dedicates himself wholeheartedly to causes he believes in.

“If he feels strongly about a person, then he’s very helpful towards that person, just like if he feels strongly about a community or a group like the Palestinians, he’ll devote himself to that group,� Fitz said.