A pro-Israel Moroccan journalist claims that a planned trip to meet his brother in the Bahamas turned into a 32-hour detention in Cuba, alleging he was targeted because of his ties to Israel. Speaking to Israel's Ynet News via video call, Amine Ayoub said he was traveling from Morocco via France to Havana when Cuban officials detained him on arrival, questioning him for hours about numerous Israeli visa stamps in his passport. «They held me there like a criminal», he said, adding that his phone was confiscated for hours without explanation. Ayoub said he was eventually allowed into Cuba for three days but was later stopped at the airport while trying to board his flight to the Bahamas. «The Bahamians don't want you (…) No, you cannot go to the Bahamas», he recalls being told, without paperwork or a formal explanation. He said he was ordered to return to Morocco and confined in a holding room under constant escort. «It was a crazy experience, those 32 hours», he claimed. The detention concluded when Havana's chief of police personally escorted him onto a deportation flight to Morocco, he said. He attributes the treatment to his outspoken pro-Israel activism: «That's what actually explains it, with all those questions they asked and the way they treated me». Cuba and Israel have had no official diplomatic relations since 1973. Havana strongly supports the Palestinian cause and condemns Israel's war on Gaza. In October 2024, thousands of Cubans, led by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, marched in Havana in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
